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Improvement of optical properties and memory effect in ferroelectric liquid crystal by incorporating core/shell CoFe2O4/ZnO nanocrystals

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Abstract

Here, we report incorporation of spinel ferrite CoFe2O4/ZnO (ZCOF) core/shell nanocrystals (NCs) in ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLC) resulting better optical properties. The optical properties of FLC were studied using polarizing optical microscopy (POM) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The POM texture analysis reveals improved molecular alignment of FLC by presence of ZCOF NCs. PL emission peak show about 1.4 times improvement of area under curve ratio as a result of enhanced FLC molecular ordering. The improved emission properties of FLC were result of reduced defect state emissions by presence of ZCOF NCs. The optical memory in FLC (20 s) as well as in ZCOF-incorporated FLC (2 min) is also reported using POM texture analysis with aid of ImageJ software. Memory measurements reveal winding and unwinding of helix of FLC by external electric field takes place with discrete steps as a result of smectic subphases emergence. Study of applying staircase potential to FLC material shows critical electric field of helix unwinding is 1 kV/cm. In summary, presence of ZCOF NCs in FLC would give better contrast, better brightness, and optical memory which might be useful for future FLC-based display and electronic devices.

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The data that support the finding of this study are available in the supplementary materials of this article.

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Funding

The authors are thankful to Dr. Shailaja Mahamuni and Dr. N. B. Chaure from Department of Physics, S. P. Pune University, India for their fruitful discussions and generous help in thickness measurement of LC sample cells using dielectric measurements. Authors are thankful to Dr Sachin Desarada for assistance to perform Reitveld refinement of the X-ray diffraction (XRD) data. The authors would like to acknowledge XRD and Polarizing Optical Microscopy (POM) Characterization facility at Department of Physics, S. P. Pune University, India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, 411 007, India

    Nilesh Pote, Sarika Hinge & Arun Banpurkar

  2. Department of Physics, K. J. Somaiya College, Kopargaon, 423 601, India

    Nilesh Pote

  3. Department of Physics, National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, Pune, 411 023, India

    Prasun Ganguly

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  1. Nilesh Pote
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All authors were contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by NP and SH. The first draft of the manuscript was written by NP and all authors commented on previous version of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Prasun Ganguly or Arun Banpurkar.

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Pote, N., Hinge, S., Ganguly, P. et al. Improvement of optical properties and memory effect in ferroelectric liquid crystal by incorporating core/shell CoFe2O4/ZnO nanocrystals. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 320 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12039-z

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