https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/s10051-025-01051-9
Research - Condensed Matter
Influence of silica nanoparticles on nematic liquid crystal structural and electro-optical properties
1
Department of Physics, Žilina University, Univerzitná 1, 010 26, Žilina, Slovakia
2
Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 47, 040 01, Košice, Slovakia
3
Institute of Imaging and Biomedical Photonics, College of Photonics, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Tainan, Taiwan
4
Institute of Physics of Czech Academy of Sciences, Cukrovarnícka 10, 162 00, Prague 6, Czech Republic
Received:
24
July
2025
Accepted:
12
September
2025
Published online:
9
October
2025
The nematic 5CB liquid crystal composites with silica nanoparticles were studied using light transmission and surface acoustic wave (SAW) measurements. Several different kinds of hydrophobic aerosil were chosen as a source of silica nanoparticles. The synthesized colloidal systems exhibited a pronounced memory effect, as indicated by the hysteresis observed in both light transmission and surface acoustic wave (SAW) attenuation measurements within the nematic phase at ambient temperature. However, apparent influence of SiO2 surroundings following different aerosil sources for silica nanoparticles as dopants on the improvement of the memory effect was observed. Additional studies also showed on the influence of SiO2 surroundings on the threshold voltage as well as nematic-isotropic transition temperature. The potential application of appropriate composites could lead to the fabrication of electro-optical memory devices suitable for information storage applications.
© The Author(s) 2025
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