Effects of the dispersion of zirconium dioxide nanoparticles on high performance electro-optic properties in liquid crystal devices

Abstract

We explored the doping effects of zirconium dioxide (ZrO₂) nanoparticles on the characteristics of liquid crystal (LC) devices. The electro-optic (EO) properties of LCs with various doping contents were changed. The addition of ZrO₂ nanoparticles contributed to an improvement in EO properties in nematic LC cells such as low voltage operation and fast response time. The LC cells with 1.5 wt% ZrO₂ nanoparticles showed the lowest threshold voltage (0.8 V) and the fastest response time (14.5 ms), and especially, a rise time of 0.7 ms, which can be applied for use in advanced LC devices.

Keywords:

• zirconium dioxide
• nanoparticles
• liquid crystal devices
• electro-optic properties

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by MKE (The Ministry of Knowledge Economy), Korea, under the ITRC (Information Technology Research Center) support program supervised by the NIPA (National IT Industry Promotion Agency) (NIPA-2011-C1090-1111-0002).