Electrooptic and Dielectric Studies in Cadmium Sulphide Nanorods/Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Mixtures

Praveen Malik,Rohit Mehra,Ashok Chaudhary,K K Raina

doi:10.1155/2012/853160

Abstract

We present the results based on the electrooptic and dielectric studies in cadmium sulphide (CdS) nanorods/ferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures. Doping of CdS nanorods increases the spontaneous polarization and response time, which due to large dipole-dipole interaction and increase in anchoring energies exists between nanorods and FLC molecules. Dielectric measurements revealed a decrease (~40% for 0.3% CdS in FLC) in permittivity and dielectric strength in doped sample cell than pure FLC mixture. A decrease in dc conductivity and relaxation frequency with doping concentration was also noticed. The preexponent factor and fractional exponent factor are found as predicated by existing theories.

Highlights

Liquid crystal (LC) devices are indispensable elements of modern life because of ubiquity of their application like spatial light modulator, optical antennas, and flat panel display devices [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
Kinkead and Hegmann observed that the effect of size and capping agent and concentration of CdSe and CdTe quantum dots play an important role to modify the electro-optic properties [23]
Various studies confirm that doping of nanorods (Cds, ZnS, CdSe, etc.) into nematic liquid crystals has considerable improvement in various properties such as optical, structural, electrooptic, and dielectric [24,25,26,27,28,29]

Summary

Introduction

Liquid crystal (LC) devices are indispensable elements of modern life because of ubiquity of their application like spatial light modulator, optical antennas, and flat panel display devices [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Nanomaterials as a doping agent into liquid crystalline materials have attracted great deal of attention due to their unique structure and physical properties. For enhancing the physical properties, a proper selection of nanomaterials for liquid crystals depends upon various factors such as size, shape, preparation methods, surfactant concentration, and amount of doping materials [18, 19]. Various studies confirm that doping of nanorods (Cds, ZnS, CdSe, etc.) into nematic liquid crystals has considerable improvement in various properties such as optical, structural, electrooptic, and dielectric [24,25,26,27,28,29]. An attempt has been made to study the effect of CdS nanorods on the electro-optic and dielectric properties in CdS/FLC mixtures

Experimental

Results and Discussion

Conclusions