Thermal optical non-linearity of nematic mesophase enhanced by gold nanoparticles – an experimental and numerical investigation

Kurochkin, O.; Murugesan, Y. K.; Bennett, T. P.; D'Alessandro, G.; Reznikov, Y.; Tang, B. J.; Mehl, G. H.; Kaczmarek, M.

Abstract

In this work the mechanisms leading to the enhancement of optical nonlinearity of nematic liquid crystalline material through localized heating by doping the liquid crystals (LCs) with gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are investigated. We present some experimental and theoretical results on the effect of voltage and nanoparticle concentration on the nonlinear response of GNP-LC suspensions. The optical nonlinearity of these systems is characterized by diffraction measurements and the second order nonlinear refractive index, n 2 , is used to compare systems with different configurations and operating conditions. A theoretical model based on heat diffusion that takes into account the intensity and finite size of the incident beam, the nanoparticle concentration dependent absorbance of GNP doped LC systems and the presence of bounding substrates is developed and validated. We use the model to discuss the possibilities of further enhancing the optical nonlinearity.

Citation

Kurochkin, O., Murugesan, Y. K., Bennett, T. P., D'Alessandro, G., Reznikov, Y., Tang, B. J., …Kaczmarek, M. (2016). Thermal optical non-linearity of nematic mesophase enhanced by gold nanoparticles – an experimental and numerical investigation. Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP, 18(16), 11503-11512. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6cp00116e

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 25, 2016
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Mar 3, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 3, 2016
• Journal: Physical chemistry chemical physics
• Print ISSN: 1463-9076
• Electronic ISSN: 1463-9084
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 16
• Pages: 11503-11512
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/c6cp00116e
• Keywords: Nematic mesophase
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/412233
• Publisher URL: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2016/cp/c6cp00116e#!divAbstract
• Additional Information: : This document is Similarity Check deposited; : The PCCP Owner Societies have an exclusive publication licence for this journal; : Single-blind; : Received 12 January 2016; Accepted 25 February 2016; Accepted Manuscript published 1 March 2016; Advance Article published 11 April 2016; Version of Record published 20 April 2016