Employing Nano-dopants to Enhance the Resistivity of Molecular Liquid Crystals*

Liquid crystals are integral elements of tunable electro-optical components and display applications. Reconfigurable electro-optical thin films as well as tunable optical filters for aerospace and hyperspectral imaging require high resistivity liquid crystal materials. Therefore, manipulating their resistivity in a desirable way is critical for optimal performance across these applications. The presence of contamination in the form of ionic impurities unfavorably limits and alters the electrical resistivity which creates a reduced voltage holding ratio that is necessary for proper function of the device. As a rule, the ion adsorption properties of nano-dopants allow for the possibility of increasing or decreasing the resistivity by up to several (2-4) orders of magnitude. By introducing two types of nano-dopants, electrical resistivity can be tuned more efficiently by taking advantage of a greater number of parameters affecting the resistivity.