Photoluminescent Thin Films of Room-Temperature Glassy Tris(keto-hydrozone) Discotic Liquid Crystals and Their Nanocomposites with Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Optoelectronics.

This study addresses the photoresponse of liquid-crystalline tris(keto-hydrozone) discotic (TKHD)-a star-shaped molecular structure with three branches. Object of our research interest was also TKHD filled with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) at a concentration of 1 wt %. At room temperature, the discotic liquid crystals in thin films (thickness 3 μm) of both TKHD and nanocomposite SWCNT/TKHD were in a glassy state.

Ion-Conducting Flexible Thin Films of Composites from Poly(ethylene oxide) and Nematic Liquid Crystals E8-Characterization by Impedance and Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy.

Complex electrical impedance and dielectric spectroscopy were applied to study the dielectric relaxations and their thermal behavior in ion-conducting composites/complexes from polymer poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and E8 nematic liquid crystals (LCs), at the compositional ratio PEO:E8 = 70:30 wt%. Flexible thin films of PEO/E8 with a thickness of 150 μm were inspected, as well as such films from Na ion-conducting electrolyte PEO/E8/NaIO with the same PEO:E8 compositional ratio, but additionally containing 10 wt.% from the salt sodium metaperiodate (NaIO) as a dopant of Na ions.

Observation of transient alignment-inversion walls in nematics of phenyl benzoates in the presence of a magnetic field.

Formation of new transient walls by a constant magnetic field at the Fréedericsz critical value has been observed. They are oriented along the initial alignment of the nematic phase of phenyl benzoates and appeared only in relatively thick samples with a thickness between 50 and 100 μm of the cells. The excellent planarity of the liquid crystal orientation is considered to be the most important condition for their presence These magnetic walls are transient as they disappear either after a few seconds for 100 μm thick nematic cells or after parts of a second for thinner (50 μm) nematic cells.

Gradient polymer-disposed liquid crystal single layer of large nematic droplets for modulation of laser light.

The light modulating ability of gradient polymer-disposed liquid crystal (PDLC) single layer of large droplets formed by nematic E7 in UV-cured polymer NOA65 is studied. Operating at relatively low voltages, such PDLC film with a of thickness 10-25 μm and droplet size up to 50 μm exhibits a good contrast ratio and is capable of producing a large phase shift for the propagating coherent light. For a linearly polarized He-Ne laser (λ=633 nm), an electrically commanded phase shift as large as π/2 can be obtained by the large-droplet region of the film.