Dielectric Relaxation in Filled Nematic Liquid Crystals

ABSTRACTNematic liquid crystals filled with Aerosil particles are new heterogeneous materials important for different optoelectronic applications. These materials are suspensions of small silica particles, about 10-17 nm in diameter, dispersed in nematic liquid crystals. The particles are known to form a network structure dividing liquid crystal into domains with linear size approximately 250 nm. We used both hydrophilic and hydrophobic particles, filling them with the nematic liquid crystal-5CB.Broad band dielectric spectroscopy (1 mHz - 1.5 GHz) was applied for the investigation of these materials. Two bulk-like modes due to the rotation of molecules around the short axis and the tumbling motion were observed in filled 5CB. Additionally, a low frequency relaxation process and the dispersion of dielectric permittivity due to conductivity were also observed. The modification of the surface of the particles has stronger influence on the slow process and is less important for the molecular modes. The contribution of the slow process for the hydrophilic sample to the total polarization is greater than for the hydrophobic sample. In addition, the corresponding characteristic frequencies are lower for the case of hydrophilic samples. These facts suggest that the low frequency relaxation is an Aerosil particle-liquid crystal interface related phenomena and the origin of this process maybe explained on the basis of surface induced polarization.