Memory e ect in ® lled nematic liquid crystals

The irreversible electro-optical response (memory e ect) of l̀iquid crystal ± aerosil ’ suspensions under the in ¯ uence of an electric ® eld is investigated. Thereby, the in ¯ uence of the aerosil concentration on the e ciency of the memory e ect is studied. The experimental results are discussed in the frame of a model where the ® lled nematic is considered as a system of aerosil agglomerates in a liquid crystal matrix stabilized by the forces of liquid crystal orientational elasticity. 1. Introduction Liquid crystals 5CB and ZhKM-1285 contain molecules The physics of heterogeneous liquid crystals (LCs) is with cyano groups, which can form hydrogen bonds. of interest for both applied and fundamental physics Such a special interaction is not possible for ZLI-4801. [1]. One version of such systems is provided by ® lled In order to prove the importance of hydrogen bonds on nematic LCs consisting of suspensions of aerosil particles the memory e ect, 0 5 ́ weight per cent of a proton accept