Gold Nanoparticle–Mediated Field Redistribution for Accelerated Electro-Optical Switching in Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

While chiral smectic C* phase share spontaneous polarization, biostability with one of the lowest threshold of mechanical softening in addition to an inherently fast response making ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) attractive choice as electro-optical medium. However, in practice FLC devices are seldom limited simply by bulk reorientation dynamics. Rather the observable switching speed, hysteresis, reproducibility and low-voltage behavior depend sensitively on mobile ionic species interfacial charge accumulation as well as field screening close to the electrodes. Consequently, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have received continuous interest as multi-functional nanodopants that can change local ordering [3], adjust anchoring, provide ion-adsorption sites and reshape the dielectric spectrum.

Capacitive spectroscopy serves as the organizing principle of this manuscript, which develops an analytical study of AuNP-doped FLCs suitable for submission style presentation. Our voltage-dependent switching time, normalized transmittance rise, capacitance dispersion, dielectric loss and Nyquist behavior and conductivity suppression were calculated from a literature-grounded parameter set. Mobile-ion-density trends. The modelling indicates that intermediate AuNP loadings decreases switching time by 30.4% across a realistic driving range, also decreasing the low-frequency capacitance associated with electrode polarization and shifting dielectric relaxation to higher frequencies while simultaneously minimising direct-current conductivity over an optimal loading window ( 0.08-0.10 wt%).