Bidirectional rotation control of a carbon fiber in nematic liquid crystal using AC electric field

Colloidal particles dispersed in nematic liquid crystals are aligned along the orientation that minimizes the elastic free energy. Through applying an electric field to a nematic colloidal system, the orientation of the director can change. Consequently, colloidal particles realign to minimize the total free energy, which is the sum of the elastic and electric free energies. Herein, we demonstrate that if the preferred rotation directions given by the electric and elastic free energies are different during realignment, the rotation direction of the particle can be controlled by how we apply the electric field. When the strength of the electric field gradually increases, the particles rotate in the same direction as the rotation of the director. However, when a sufficiently high electric field is suddenly applied, the particles rotate in the opposite direction. In this study, we analyzed the effect of free energy on the bidirectional rotation behavior of the particles using a theoretical model. This study provides an effective approach to control the rotational behavior of colloidal particles over a wide-angle range between two orientational local minima.