Dielectric spectroscopy is one of the most commonly used techniques for the investigation of the dynamic response of glass-forming materials. The tremendous slowdown of the particle motions when approaching the glass transition and especially the fast processes in glass-forming materials, which have come into the focus of scientific interest recently, make the investigation in a wide frequency ...

Using field-theoretic techniques, we study the solvation of salt ions in liquid mixtures, accounting for the permanent and induced dipole moments, as well as the molecular volume of the species. With no adjustable parameters, we predict solvation energies in both single-component liquids and binary liquid mixtures that are in excellent agreement with experimental data. Our study shows that the ...

A partially fluorinated terphenyl liquid crystal with low absorption in both mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and near IR regions is developed and its properties evaluated. This compound exhibits a nematic phase (although only about 2 °C), reasonably high birefringence (Δn~0.2), low visco-elastic coefficient, and modest dielectric anisotropy (Δε = -2.7). This compound serves as an important first examp...

We propose the design for a switchable mirror with high efficiency and a 30 nm bandwidth. The device is based on a liquid crystal filled etalon. Broad bandwidth is achieved through the use of integrated half-wave layers into the dielectric stack design, while high efficiency is achieved using a polarization independent liquid crystal effect. Potential applications in the area of displays are al...

Quinaldine (2-methyl quinoline) is a liquid at room temperature, which can be supercooled to reach finally the glassy state. By heating the glass above the glass transition temperature T(g) = 180 K the sample performs two subsequent transitions into, likewise, dielectrically active phases. Thus, the reorientational relaxations of these phases as well as the kinetics of the phase transitions can...

The transition from surface to bulk normal dielectric rolls in a nematic liquid crystal is imaged by fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy. The three-dimensional director structure and the liquid flow are scanned in both the layer plane and the transverse plane. Two systems of small-scale convective flow are formed, one at each electrode. Strong anchoring makes director oscillations diffi...

We describe a sensor for the measurement of thin dielectric layers capable of operation in a variety of environments. The sensor is obtained by microfabricating a capacitor with interleaved aluminum fingers, exposed to the dielectric to be measured. In particular, the device can measure thin layers of solid frozen from a liquid or gaseous medium. Sensitivity to single atomic layers is achievabl...

We present a dielectric study on the dynamics of supercooled glycerol during crystallization. We explore the transformation into a solid phase in real time by monitoring the temporal evolution of the amplitude of the dielectric signal. Neither the initial nucleation nor the crystal growth influences the liquid dynamics visibly. For one of the samples studied, a tiny fraction of glycerol remaine...

We study experimentally the interaction of spatial optical solitons with curved dielectric surfaces in unbiased nematic liquid crystals. We demonstrate that this interaction depends on the curvature of the surface and the walk-off, and it can be employed for efficient routing and control of the soliton trajectories. We also observe a large-angle total internal reflection of the soliton beam fro...

We demonstrate a controllable viewing angle liquid crystal display (LCD) using an inserted blue-phase liquid crystal (BPLC) cell. The BPLC layer functions as a tunable positive C-film or a negative C-film, depending on whether the employed LC has a positive or negative dielectric anisotropy. Therefore, the viewing angle of the LCD panel can be controlled continuously by the applied voltage of t...