Effect of magnitude of voltage and magnetic field on memory effect in nematic phase of liquid crystal and their composites with aerosil and goethite nanoparticles.

In liquid crystals doped with aerosil nanoparticles, the state induced by applying voltage or a magnetic field stays remembered after removing the power. The ability to remember the induced state after removing the power is known as non-volatile memory effect. The present paper describes how the magnitude of voltage and magnetic field affects the memory effect in the nematic phase of liquid crystal 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl doped with aerosil nanoparticles and with a combination of aerosil and magnetic goethite nanoparticles. Capacitance measurements revealed increasing in memory when the magnitude of voltage and magnetic field is increased. Applying fields with various magnitudes provides the possibility of fabrication a multilevel memory device based on the response to electric or magnetic field. The memory can be erased, and the initial state can be restored by heating the composites to the same temperature. • Memory effect in nematic composites induced by electric and magnetic field was observed. • The magnitude of memory effect can be tuned by intensity of electric or magnetic field. • Heating the composite results in erasing the memory and reaching the initial state. • Potential use as a multilevel memory device is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]