Dielectric relaxation and anisotropy of nematic mixture E-24

The dielectric anisotropy and dispersion of the real and imaginary part of permittivity of commercially important nematic mixture E-24 were investigated in the frequency range from 1 kHz to 10 MHz and temperature range 287-328 K. The measurements in nematic phase indicate Debye-type dispersion with relaxation time of 1.07 μs at 313 K and activation energy 41.01 kcal/mol. The results have been explained by assuming the molecular rotation about the long molecular axis under a hindering nematic potential. The dielectric anisotropy Δε is positive and the mean dielectric permittivity falls with rising temperature. Δε is also used to determine the order parameter for varying temperature.     

Dielectric investigations in the nematic and hexatic smectic B phases of 4-hexyl-4′-[2-(4-isothiocyanatophenyl)ethyl]-1,1′-biphenyl

Temperature-dependent dielectric characterization of 4-hexyl-4′-[2-(4-isothiocyanatophenyl)ethyl]-1,1′-biphenyl (HIEB), which exhibits smectic B and nematic phases, has been carried out over the frequency range of 1 Hz to 10 MHz for homeotropic and planar alignment of sample molecules. This compound shows positive dielectric anisotropy (Δε = ε _∥ ? ε _⊥ > 0) in the nematic (N) phase. One mode of dielectric relaxation showing Arrhenius behaviour has been detected in the hexatic smectic B (SmB) phase. Various electrical parameters, namely, dielectric anisotropy, relaxation frequency and activation energy, have been determined in the N and SmB phases.     

The conduction regime in a nematic liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy at frequencies above the dielectric relaxation frequency

Due to the relaxation of the longitudinal dielectric constant, the dielectric anisotropy in a nematic liquid crystal may change sign and become negative. This gives rise to a conduction regime with negative dielectric anisotropy at high frequencies. The width and cutoff frequency of this conduction regime are calculated.     

Numerical study of deformations induced by ac electric field in insulating flexoelectric nematic layers

The influence of the frequency f of applied ac electric field on the time dependence of electric field induced deformations of homeotropic nematic layers is studied numerically. Three kinds of nematic liquid crystals were considered:

Frequency-dependent deformation of liquid crystal droplets in an external electric field

Nematic droplets suspended in the isotropic phase of the same substance were subjected to alternating electrical fields of varying frequency. To keep the system at a constant nematic/isotropic volume ratio with constant droplet size, we carefully kept the temperature in the isotropic/nematic coexistence region, which was broadened by adding small amounts of a non-mesogenic liquid. Whereas the nematic droplets remained spherical at low (in the order of 10 Hz) and high frequencies (in the order of 1 kHz), at intermediate frequencies we observed a marked flattening of the droplets in the plane perpendicular to the applied field. Droplet deformation occurred both in liquid crystals (LCs) with positive and negative dielectric anisotropy. The experimental data can be quantitatively modelled with a combination of the leaky dielectric model and screening of the applied electric field due to finite conductivity.     

Investigation of dielectric properties and diffraction efficiency enhancements caused by photothermal effect in DR9 dye-doped nematic liquid crystal

In this work, we studied dielectric properties and laser-induced refractive index changes originating from photothermal effects of liquid crystal material doped with Disperse Red 9 (DR9) dye. Dye concentration is arranged to be between percentages changing from 0.2 wt.% to 1 wt.% in E63 nematic liquid crystal. Nonlinear optical properties such as diffraction efficiency (η) and refractive index modulation (Δn) were investigated by diffraction grating measurements. It was found the diffraction efficiency of pure E63 nematic liquid crystal is 1%. As the doping amount of DR9 dye in nematic LC is increased, diffraction efficiency took higher values and the maximum diffraction efficiency of 10% was gained with E63 doped with 0.8 wt.%DR9 dye. Moreover, dielectric permittivity and dielectric anisotropy values of the samples were investigated in the frequency range of 100 Hz-10 MHz by using dielectric spectroscopy technique. It was observed that dielectric constant values of the liquid crystal material are strongly affected by doping with dye.     

Phase diagrams and dielectric studies of binary mixtures exhibiting intermediate nematic and induced smectic phases

Investigations on the phase diagrams of two bi-component mixtures of liquid crystals are presented. Whereas in one of the bi-component systems, smectic A (SmA) phase is seen to be induced, in the other case the so-called nematic “island” has been observed. The dielectric properties of magnetically oriented sample forming nematic phase and induced smectic phase in one of the mixtures, and a nematic “island” and SmA phase in the other mixture, were measured in the frequency range from 1?Hz to 10?MHz at different temperatures. The transition temperatures obtained from the polarizing microscope and differential scanning calorimeter measurements agree well with the dielectric relaxation data.     

Physical characterisation of 4′-butyl-4-heptyl- bicyclohexyl-4-carbonitrile

We report measurements of birefringence, bend elastic constant, principal dielectric constants and conductivities as functions of temperature in the nematic phase of 4′-butyl-4-heptyl-bicyclohexyl-4-carbonitrile (CCN-47). The compound exhibits a small birefringence and a large negative dielectric anisotropy. Surprisingly, it shows a negative conductivity anisotropy, which probably owes its origin to the structural details of the molecules. The orientational order parameters (S) are estimated from both birefringence and dielectric anisotropy, and they agree well in the entire nematic range. The experimental results are compared with those on CCH7, which has a similar core structure but with a longitudinal dipole moment, in place of the transverse one of CCN-47.     

Mesomorphic and dielectric properties of esters useful for formulation of nematic mixtures for dual frequency addressing system

Mesomorphic and dielectric properties of three homologous series of two and three ring fluorosubstituted esters are described. They are 4-cyano-3-fluorophenyl 4-alkyloxy-2-fluorobenzoates, 4-cyano-3-fluorophenyl 4-(4-alkylbenzoyloxy)-2-fluorobenzoates and 3-fluoro-4-cyanophenyl, or 3-fluoro-4-isothiocyanatophenyl or 3,4-difluorophenyl 4′-alkyl-2,3-difluoro-biphenyl-4-carboxylates. The compounds exhibit the nematic mesophase accompanied by the smectic A or smectic C mesophase in some cases. Most of them show strong dependence of the dielectric anisotropy Δε upon frequency, at low frequencies Δε reaches a value ∼200, while at high frequencies a small negative dielectric anisotropy appears.     

Dielectric observations of nematic instabilities

The capacitive changes of negative dielectric anisotropy nematic liquid crystal layers in the presence of ac bias voltages reflect the frequency dependence of the director distributions which underly various instability modes.     

Changes of twisted nematic liquid-crystal layers by frequency switching of applied electric fields

Electric fields of low and high frequency were applied successively to a twisted nematic layer consisting of a material with a dielectric anisotropy whose sign depends on the frequency. Six different areas have been observed which are found to have twist angles of ±π/2, ±3π/2 and ±5π/2. The formation process of these regions is described in some detail.     

Electro-optical characteristics of photoinduced isomerization in 2,2′-azobis[5,6-bis(dodecyloxy)quinoxaline]-azo-dye-doped nematic liquid crystals

The formation of photoinduced gratings was realized and dielectric properties were investigated in a nematic liquid crystal (LC) doped by 2,2′-azobis[5,6-bis(dodecyloxy)quinoxaline] azo dye (AD). The enhancement of the optical and electrical properties of the system was studied by dielectric spectroscopy and diffraction grating measurements. We report the electro-optical properties of LC cells containing pure LC (E7) and its doped form with 1% (wt/wt) 2,2′-azobis[5,6-bis(dodecyloxy)quinoxaline] AD. Diffraction efficiencies, η, of 441 nm pump and 632 nm probe beams were measured in two-wave-mixing experiment. Diffraction efficiency has a noteworthy increase in AD-doped nematic liquid crytals. A maximum diffraction efficiency of 14% was found for cell doped with AD, while cells without AD had a maximum efficiency of 1%. Photoinduced refractive index change Δn and nonlinear index coefficient n₂ were also determined by the two-wave-mixing method. The dielectric parameters of AD-doped E7 and pure E7 LC have been investigated in the frequency range 1 kHz-1 MHz by the dielectric-spectroscopy method. Dielectric anisotropy (Δε) property of the LCs changes from the positive type to negative type and dielectric anisotropy values decrease with AD.     

Fréedericksz deformation in nematic liquid crystals with frequency dependent dielectric constant

The rise and decay times of a Fréedericksz deformation in a planar nematic layer have been investigated. The liquid crystal used was an ester mixture with regimes of positive as well as negative dielectric anisotropy. This property allows to control both the rise and the decay times of the deformation by switching the frequency of the electric field. The kinetics was monitored with a fluorescent dye-probe.     

Comprehensive studies on dielectric properties of p-methoxy benzylidene p-decyl aniline with function of temperature and frequency in planar geometry: A potential nematic liquid crystal for display devices

The dielectric properties of the nematic mesophase, p-methoxy benzylidene p-decyl aniline(MBDA), measured in planar geometry with a function of frequency and temperature are investigated in detail. The complex dielectric permittivity(ε' and ε') is also studied at a bias voltage of 10 V for planar aligned sample cell of nematic mesophase. The dielectric permittivity with bias voltage attains a higher( 2 times) value than that without bias voltage at a temperature of 56℃,which is due to the fact that the linking group of nematic molecules is internally interacted with an applied bias voltage.This is supported by observing an enhanced dielectric permittivity of nematic liquid crystal(LC) in the presence of bias voltage, which can be fully explained as the increasing of the corresponding dipole moment. The dielectric relaxation behaviors of nematic LC are also demonstrated for planar aligned sample cell. The remarkable results are observed that the relaxation frequency shifts into low frequency region with the increase of the bias voltage applied to the planar aligned sample cells. The dielectric relaxation spectra are fitted by Cole–Cole nonlinear curve fitting for nematic mesophase in order to determine the dielectric strength.     

Sign inversion of dielectric anisotropy in nematic liquid crystal by dye doping

The present paper reports sign inversion in dielectric anisotropy of a nematic liquid crystal, i.e. 5CB, as an effect of doping dye (solvent green 3) in small amount. It is the result of strong variation of the parallel component of dielectric permittivity with temperature for a dye doped sample. This behavior is attributed to the interaction taking place between the nematic liquid crystal molecule and the dye molecule. This behavior of dielectric anisotropy has been explained on the basis of interaction between the dye (guest) and the liquid crystal molecules (host).     

Dielectric permittivity studies of nematogenic compounds and their binary mixtures showing induced smectic Ad phase

The binary mixture of 4-n-pentyl phenyl 4-n′-hexyloxy benzoate (ME6O.5) and p-cyanophenyl trans-4-pentyl cyclohexane carboxylate (CPPCC) shows the presence of induced Smectic A_d phase. In the present work the phase diagram as well as static dielectric permittivity measurements of different mixtures throughout the composition range, are reported. The observed variation of dielectric anisotropy with molar concentration in the nematic and smectic phases is explained, assuming the formation of both homo- and hetero-dimers in the mixture.     

Dielectric and electrooptical properties of hockey-stick-shaped liquid crystal with a negative dielectric anisotropy

We investigated dielectric properties of a hockey-stick-shaped liquid crystal (HLC). Two dielectric relaxation modes were observed at 0.91 kHz and 4.51 MHz. The low frequency relaxation modes in isotropic, smectic, and nematic phases are related to the motion of ions, collective tilt fluctuation, and rotation around the long molecular axis, respectively. Meanwhile, the high frequency relaxation modes in nematic and smectic phases was due to the rotation around the short axis of the molecules and hindered by the resistance of the ITO layers. We also examined the electrooptical response of the 5.0 wt% HLC-doped commercial nematic liquid crystal (LC) mixtures. The birefringence of the LC mixture was slightly increased, while the falling time and the rotational viscosity was decreased in the nematic phase.     

Nematic liquid crystals with positive dielectric and negative diamagnetic anisotropy

p-Alkyl-p′-cyanocyclohexylcyclohexanes CCH represent a new class of thermotropic nematic liquid crystals which no longer exhibit UV absorption abobe 200 nm, are distinguised by an optical anisotropy of less than 0.1, and in contrast to all previously known “dielectric positive”, thermotropic nematic liquid crystals possess a negative diamagnetic anisotropy.     

Parameters of LC molecules’ movement measured by dielectric spectroscopy in wide temperature range

Dielectric properties of a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) mixture ZhK-1282 were investigated in the frequency range of 10²–10⁶Hz and a temperature range of ?20 to 80?°С. On the basis of the Debye’s relaxation polarization model dielectric spectra of temperature dependence of the orientational relaxation time τ and the dielectric strength δe were numerically approximated at the parallel orientation of a molecular director relative to alternating electric field. Influence of ester components in the mixture plays crucial role in relaxation processes at low temperature and external field frequency. The activation energy of the relaxation process of a rotation of molecules around their short axis was measured in a temperature interval of ?20 to ?+15?°С in which the dispersion of a longitudinal component of the dielectric constant takes place. The energy of potential barrier for polar molecules rotation in the mesophase was calculated. The value of the transition entropy from the nematic to isotropic phase was obtained from this calculation. The values of the coefficient of molecular friction and rotational diffusion were obtained by different methods. The experimental data obtained are in a satisfactory agreement with the existing theoretical models.     

Direct transition to electroconvection in a homeotropic nematic liquid crystal

We present an experimental and theoretical investigation of a variant of electroconvection using an unusual nematic liquid crystal in an isotropic configuration (homeotropic alignment). The significance of the system is a direct transition to the convecting state due to the negative conductivity anisotropy and positive dielectric anisotropy. We observe at onset rolls or squares depending on the frequency and amplitude of the applied ac voltage with a strong signature of the zigzag instability. Good agreement with calculations based on the underlying hydrodynamic theory is found. We also construct an extended Swift-Hohenberg model which allows us to capture complex patterns like squares with a quasiperiodic modulation.