1c06 Electric field effects in optically isotropic phase of bent-core liquid crystals

Abstract

We have found that large optically isotropic chiral domains can be generated in the optically isotropic phase of an oxadiazole material (C5-Ph-ODBP-Ph-OC12) by applying an electric field. The optically isotropic phase exists below the nematic phase. We applied a triangular electric field to C5-Ph-ODBP-Ph-OC12 cells (thickness: 〜5μm) in the optically isotropic phase. The amplitude was varied to 400 V_pp. We found that the domain size depends on both the amplitude and frequency of the applied field. Our results suggest that the phase of the optically isotropic chiral domains induced by the electric field is a B2 dark conglomerate phase.