ACTA

Structural Phase Transition in Liquid Crystal Doped with Gold Nanoparticles

P. Kopčanský^a, N. Tomašovičová^a, M. Koneracká^a, M. Timko^a, Z. Mitróová^a, V. Závišová^a, N. Éber^b, K. Fodor-Csorba^b, T. Tóth-Katona^b, A. Vajda^b, J. Jadzyn^c, E. Beaugnon^d and X. Chaud^d
^aInstitute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Science, Watsonova 47, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia
^bResearch Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1525 Budapest, P.O. Box 49, Hungary
^cInstitute of Molecular Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, M. Smoluchowskiego 17, 60-179 Poznań, Poland
^dHigh Magnetic Field Laboratory, CNRS, 25 Av. des Martyrs, Grenoble, France

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The influence of the inclusion of the dodecanethiol functionalized gold particles (with diameter 3-5 nm) on the structural transitions was investigated. The studied samples were based on the nematic liquid crystal 4-(trans-4'-n-hexylcyclohexyl)-isothiocyanatobenzene (6CHBT). The volume concentration of the gold particles was ϕ₁ = 2 × 10^-4 and ϕ₂ = 10^-3. The obtained results showed that the inclusion of the gold particles in the 6CHBT liquid crystal increases the sensitivity of such system on the external magnetic field.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.118.988
PACS numbers: 75.50.Mm, 61.30.Gd, 61.30.Hn