Analog switching in the nanocolloids of ferroelectric liquid crystals

Abstract

Nanoparticle (NP) dispersion in liquid crystals (LCs) results in significant changes in the physical properties of the existing LC mixtures. Two ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs), 5F6T and 6F6T, have been studied for analog switching. The 5F6T sample is doped with titanium dioxide (TiO2) NPs of two different concentrations of the same average particle size and another FLC 6F6T is systematically doped with barium titanate (BaTiO3) NPs of two different average particle sizes at the same concentration. The frequency and temperature dependence of the coercive voltage of FLC nanocolloids has been studied. The V-shaped switching was observed in the case of nano-doped FLCs. The value of inversion frequency for the 5F6T+1.0 wt.% TiO2 doped sample is 30 Hz while it is 24 Hz for the 6F6T+0.5 wt.% BaTiO3 (particle size 5–10 nm) doped sample. The conductivity measurements show that the conductivity of doped samples is higher than the conductivity of their parental FLCs and can be considered the main reason for the V-shaped switching in the FLC nanocolloids, which was initially absent in their parental FLCs.