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Published on: October 31, 2019
Effect of anisotropic MoS2 nanoparticles on the blue phase range of a chiral liquid crystal
Marta Lavrič1, George Cordoyiannis, Samo Kralj
1Condensed Matter Physics Department, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Abstract:
Liquid-crystalline blue phases are attracting significant interest due to their potential for applications related to tunable photonic crystals and fast optical displays. In this work a brief theoretical model is presented accounting for the impact of anisotropic nanoparticles on the blue phase stability region. This model is tested by means of high-resolution calorimetric and optical measurements of the effect of anisotropic, surface-functionalized MoS2 nanoparticles on the blue phase range of a chiral liquid crystal. The addition of these nanoparticles effectively increases the temperature range of blue phases and especially the cubic structure of blue phase I.
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