CdTe quantum dot-polymer stabilized blue phase liquid crystal nanocomposite with wide blue phase and improved electro-optical responses

Abstract

In the present work, a hybrid blue phase liquid crystal material exhibiting more than 40K wide blue phase temperature range has been prepared and investigated its optical, electro-optical and dielectric properties. The hybrid material was prepared by introducing cadmium telluride quantum dots in polymer stabilized blue phase liquid crystals. The blue phase temperature range of hybrid material was also compared with other blue phase liquid crystal systems (polymer stabilized blue phase liquid crystals, quantum dots doped pure blue phase liquid crystals), which indicated that the thermal stability is significantly augmented in hybrid materials. Further, the substantial reduction in operating voltage (12.5%), improvement in transmittance and Kerr constant with three-fold increase in dielectric permittivity in quantum dots doped polymer stabilized blue phase liquid crystals were observed as the other important findings of present work. The examined hybrid materials with wide blue phase temperature range and superior electro-optical properties are expected to be important for various photonic applications.