Temperature dependences of the electrooptical properties of rodlike nematic liquid crystals doped with hockey-stick-shaped liquid crystals

Abstract

We investigated the temperature dependences of the dielectric anisotropy, birefringence, order parameter, splay elastic constant, and rotational viscosity of rodlike nematic liquid crystals (RLCs) doped with hockey-stick-shaped liquid crystals (HLCs). Although the order parameter of the HLC-RLC mixtures was similar to that of the pure RLC, the dielectric anisotropy and the birefringence of the mixtures were decreased or increased depending on the structure of the HLC molecule. In addition, the activation energies of the mixtures were different, which implies that the intramolecular structure of the HLC molecule had more influence on the electrooptical properties of the HLC-RLC binary mixtures than the inter-molecular interaction between the HLC and the RLC molecules.