Unusual Electro‐Optic Kerr Response in a Self‐Stabilized Amorphous Blue Phase with Nanoscale Smectic Clusters |
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| Authors: | Dr. Khoa V. Le Miho Hafuri Dr. Hale Ocak Prof. Belkız Bilgin‐Eran Prof. Carsten Tschierske Prof. Takeo Sasaki Dr. Fumito Araoka |
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| Affiliation: | 1. RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), Saitama, Japan;2. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan;3. Department of Chemistry, Yildiz Technical University, Esenler, Istanbul, Turkey;4. Institute of Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle/Saale, Germany |
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| Abstract: | We investigated the electro‐optic response in the “foggy” amorphous blue phase (BPIII) as well as in the isotropic phase. To the best of our knowledge, such a study has not yet been performed due to the very limited thermal range of BPIII. In this study, we used a single‐component chiral bent‐core liquid crystal with a self‐stabilized BPIII, which is stable over a wide temperature range. The results show that the response time is on the order of hundreds of microseconds in the isotropic phase and increases to 1–2 ms in the BPIII (at TI?BP–T <1), then drastically increases up to a few tens of milliseconds upon further cooling in BPIII. Such an unusual behavior was explained on the basis of the high rotational viscosity and/or the existence of nanoscale smectic (Sm) clusters. The Kerr constant was also measured and found to be ～500 pm V?2, which is the largest among bent‐core BP systems reported so far and comparable with that of polymer‐stabilized BPs. |
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| Keywords: | bent-core molecules blue phase Kerr effect liquid crystals response time |
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