Improving the nonlinear electro-optical responses of doped nematic liquid crystals with chiral dopants

Abstract

Liquid crystals with considerable optical and electro-optical responses play important roles in photonics and optoelectronics. In this research, the electro-optical responses of pure and doped nematic liquid crystal with left-handed S-1011 chiral dopant with different percentages were investigated at different temperatures for the first time. According to the results, nematic liquid crystal with 4 wt% of chiral dopant indicates high electro-optical Kerr constat and third-order nonlinear susceptibility. In this case, various molecular interactions enhance the average order of nematic liquid crystal. By increasing the temperature, gradually the Kerr constant is deecreased, but this decreasing is slow for liquid crystal with 9 wt% of chiral dopant. Moreover, the temperature dependence of Kerr constant was used for calculating the pre-transition temperature. Therefore, these results provide a precise and simple method for improving the electro-optical responses of a nematic liquid crystal, which is an important step in the design of optoelectronic devices.