Impact of spherical nanoparticles on the nematic order parameter

TL;DR

This study experimentally investigates how spherical nanoparticles influence the nematic order parameter in liquid crystals, revealing a nonlinear relationship and a crossover concentration that separates distinct ordering regimes.

Contribution

It provides new experimental insights into the impact of spherical nanoparticles on nematic liquid crystal order, identifying a critical concentration for regime transition.

Findings

Existence of a crossover concentration at approximately 0.004 pw.

Nanoparticles can significantly alter nematic order even at low concentrations.

Two distinct regimes of ordering are identified based on nanoparticle concentration.

Abstract

We study experimentally the impact of spherical nanoparticles on the orientational order parameters of a host nematic liquid crystal. We use spherical core-shell quantum dots that are surface functionalized to promote homeotropic anchoring on their interface with the liquid crystal host. We show experimentally that the orientational order may be strongly affected by the presence of spherical nanoparticles even at low concentrations. The orientational order of the composite system is probed by means of polarised micro-Raman spectroscopy and by optical birefringence measurements as function of temperature and concentration. Our data show that the orientational order depends on the concentration in a non linear way, and the existence of a crossover concentration $\chi_c \approx 0.004\, pw$. It separates two different regimes exhibiting pure-liquid crystal like ($\chi <\chi_c$) and distorted-nematic ordering ($\chi >\chi_c$), respectively. In the latter phase the degree of ordering is lower with respect to the pure-liquid crystal nematic phase.