Thermo- and electro-optical properties of photonic liquid crystal fibers doped with gold nanoparticles

Thermo- and electro-optical properties of a photonic liquid crystal fiber (PLCF) enhanced by the use of dopants have been investigated. A 6CHBT nematic liquid crystal was doped with four different concentrations of gold nanoparticles (NPs), 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 1.0 wt %, for direct comparison of the influence of the dopant on the properties of the PLCF. The thermo-optical effects of the liquid crystal doped with gold NPs were compared in three setups, an LC cell, a microcapillary and within the PLCF, to determine if the observed responses to external factors are caused by the properties of the infiltration material or due to the setup configuration. The results obtained indicated that with increasing NP doping a significant reduction of the rise time under an external electric field occurs with a simultaneous decrease in the nematic–isotropic phase transition temperature, thus improving the thermo- and electro-optical properties of the PLCF

Periodic alignment of liquid crystal molecules in silica micro-capillaries

The direction of liquid crystal (LC) arrangement can be changed by different techniques. Photo-alignment method appears to be potentially the best technique to use in the case of micro-capillaries. Developing the photo-alignment method of liquid crystal molecules in silica micro-capillaries allowed to work on obtaining periodic orientation. The usage of amplitude masks in the irradiation allows to obtain a periodic alignment of molecules variable within a single sample. In this paper, the experimental results of the periodic orientations achieved are presented