Influence of Goethite Nanorods on Structural Changes and Transitions in Nematic Liquid Crystal E7

Abstract

A composite ferronematic system based on the nematic liquid crystal E7, doped with lath-like goethite magnetic nanoparticles of volume concentrations 10−3, 5 × 10−4, and 10−5, was investigated. Both surface acoustic waves (SAWs) and the magneto-optical effect were used to study the influence of magnetic nanoparticles on ferronematic liquid crystals’ structural changes, focused above all on structural transitions. The responses of SAW attenuation and light transmission to external magnetic fields were investigated experimentally under linearly increasing/decreasing or jumped (time influence) magnetic fields, respectively. An investigation of temperature on structural changes was performed, as well. The experimental results validated the decrease in the threshold field of the ferronematic composites in comparison with the pure E7, as well as an increase in the transition temperature with the increasing volume fraction of nanoparticles. The effect of the nanoparticles’ concentration on both total structural changes and residual attenuations at the vanishing magnetic field was also registered. The light transmission measurements confirmed the effect of the concentration of goethite nanoparticles on the resultant magneto-optical behavior, concerning both its stability and switching time.