Field-induced dynamics of liquid crystal/liquid crystal micro-particle composites.

Liquid crystal micro-particles are functional materials possessing optical and dielectric anisotropies due to their inner molecular alignment, and are fabricated by polymerizing pre-aligned molecules in the liquid crystalline state. In this study, we demonstrate field-induced rotation of liquid crystal micro-particles in a nematic host and present a theoretical model that describes both the response of the surrounding liquid crystal host as well as micro-particles. We also investigate by experiment and theory that the decay time of the host liquid crystal in the vicinity of particles is faster than that of the host where the particles is absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]