Effect of Barium Titanate Particles on Dielectric and Electro-Optical Properties of a Smectic-a Liquid Crystal

• Published in: Russian physics journal 2018-02, Vol.60 (10), p.1659-1666
• Main Authors: Ramazanov, M. A., Imamaliyev, A. R., Humbatov, Sh. A., Agamaliev, Z. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Anisotropy; Barium; Barium titanates; Condensed Matter Physics; Dielectric properties; Electric properties; Electrical conductivity; Electrical resistivity; Ferroelectric materials; Ferroelectricity; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; Lasers; Liquid crystals; Mathematical and Computational Physics; Nuclear Physics; Optical Devices; Optical properties; Optics; Permittivity; Photonics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Theoretical; Threshold voltage; Weight reduction
• ISSN: 1064-8887; 1573-9228
• DOI: 10.1007/s11182-018-1265-1

The effect of submicron ferroelectric BaTiO 3 particles on the dielectric and electro-optical properties of the smectic-A liquid crystal (LC) with a high negative dielectric anisotropy is investigated. It is shown that the addition of BaTiO 3 particles with a weight amount of 1% reduces insignificantly the transverse dielectric permittivity component ε ⊥ of, but significantly increases the longitudinal dielectric permittivity component ε // of the smectic-A LC. As a result, the anisotropy of the dielectric permittivity Δε  =  ε //  −  ε ⊥ of the smectic-A LC decreases. The addition of BaTiO 3 particles shifts the dispersion ε ⊥ toward lower frequencies. Both components of the electrical conductivity of LC colloid + BaTiO 3 are an order of magnitude higher than of the pure LC. The threshold voltage of the homeotropic-planar transition of the colloid is twice smaller, and its velocity is 6 times higher in comparison with the pure LC. A simple model explaining qualitatively all results obtained is presented.