Tailoring of electro-optical properties of ferroelectric liquid crystals by doping Pd nanoparticles

We demonstrate here the tailoring of electro-optical properties of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) by doping different concentrations of Selenium Docosane (SD) capped palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs). The operating voltage is lowered by similar to 50% in doped FLC as compared to undoped one. The remarkable increment in optical tilt angle of doped FLC is monitored, which is concentration-dependent. The steric interactions among alkyl chains of SD capped PdNPs and FLC molecules could be the probable reason for enhanced optical tilt angle. More importantly, present investigations on doped FLCs are indicative of their indispensible impact on next generation FLCs-based electro-optical devices. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3681381]