A colloid of ferroelectric nanoparticles in a cholesteric liquid crystal

The introduction of a minor quantity of ferroelectric nanoparticles into a cholesteric mixture causes a 45% decrease of the driving voltage with both the optical cell quality and the director field in the cell remaining undisturbed. The drop of the driving voltage results from a more than twofold increase of the effective dielectric anisotropy of the nematic matrix, which is the basic component of the cholesteric compound. The results reported clearly show how promising the ferroelectric liquid crystalline (LC) nanocolloids are for various applications. In particular, they offer a unique way for an effective tuning of the dielectric, optical and electro-optic properties of LC materials in a non-synthetic way that is a new direction for the development of advanced anisotropic meso-materials. We suggest that the strong impact of ferroelectric nanoparticles on the properties of the studied chiral nematics is due to the particle's permanent polarization, which produces a giant electric field around it.