Effect of barium titanate nanoparticles of different particle sizes on electro-optic and dielectric properties of ferroelectric liquid crystal

Abstract

A comparative study of two different particle sizes of ferroelectric barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanoparticles as a dopant on the molecular structure, spontaneous polarization and dielectric behavior of a pure ferroelectric liquid crystal 6F6T have been studied. It has been found that there is a remarkable decrease in isotropic temperature of both doped samples as compared to the pure 6F6T sample. The spontaneous polarization also decreases for both the doped samples and the reduction is more pronounced in case of the dopant with large particle size. The dielectric spectroscopy confirms the presence of soft mode as well as Goldstone mode and also shows the decrease in the value of dielectric permittivity ϵ' as a function of frequency for both doped samples. The improvised properties of liquid crystal host doped with BaTiO3 nanoparticles mainly depend upon the synthesis method of nanoparticles and also upon the particle size of dopant.