Co-dispersion of plasmonic nanorods in thermotropic nematic liquid crystals*

Colloidal dispersions of plasmonic metal nanoparticles in liquid crystals promise the capability of pre-engineering tunable optical properties of mesostructured metal-dielectric composites. Recently, concentrated dispersions of anisotropic gold, silver, and metal alloy nanoparticles in nematic hosts have been achieved and successfully controlled by low-voltage fields [1, 2]. However, to enable versatile designs of material behavior of the composites, simultaneous co-dispersion of anisotropic particles with different shapes, alignment properties, and compositions are often needed. We achieve such co-dispersions and explore their switching characteristics in response to external stimuli like light and electric fields. We demonstrated that spectral characteristics of co-dispersions of multiple types of anisotropic nanoparticles in a common nematic host provides unprecedented variety of electrically- and optically-tunable material behavior, with a host of potential practical applications in electro-optic devices and displays. [1] Liu, Q., Yuan, Y., {\&} Smalyukh, I. I. (2014).~\textit{Nano letters},~\textit{14}(7), 4071-4077. [2] Zhang, Y., Liu, Q., Mundoor, H., Yuan, Y., {\&} Smalyukh, I. I. (2015).~\textit{ACS nano},~\textit{9}(3), 3097-3108.