Effects of dispersed carbon nanotubes on electro-optic characteristics and orientation of liquid crystal in the in-plane switching cell

To understand effects of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) dispersed in nematic liquid crystal (NLC) on electrooptic characteristic and orientation of the LC, we CNT-doped homogeneously-aligned NLC cells driven by in-plane field have been fabricated. The CNTs were aligned with a LC director from the initial state to below critical ac field, whereas the CNTs disturbed the LC director field above critical ac field. We observed motional textures in the form of vertical stripes in the local area between electrodes, which were associated with a deformation of the LC director orientation. This indicates that CNTs start vibrating three dimensionally with translational motion. Further, the hysterisis studies of voltage-dependent transmittance under dc electric field show that the amount of residual dc, which is related to image sticking problem in liquid crystal displays, is greatly reduced due to ion trapping by CNTS while keeping operating voltage and response time about the same compared to the un-doped LC cell.