Search for: All records

Abstract Recently, doping guest materials such as quantum dots (QDs) into liquid crystals (LCs) has been of great interest since their addition substantially enhances the properties of LC and opens new avenues for scientific advancement. Here, we report the induction of homeotropic alignment in cells without alignment layers of the negative dielectric nematic liquid crystal, N-(4-Methoxybenzylidene)-4-butylaniline (MBBA) by doping with carbon dots (CDs ∼2.8 ± 0.72 nm). The CDs-MBBA composites (CDs concentration: 0.002, 0.01, 0.03, 0.1 and 0.3 wt%) were investigated using optical polarising microscopy, electro-optical and dielectric techniques. Polarizing optical micrographs and voltage dependent optical transmission revealed the induced homeotropic alignment for all the composites under investigation. Interestingly, the least concentrated sample, 0.002 wt% exhibited partial homeotropic alignment. However, due to light leakage, the optical transmission value below threshold voltage was relatively higher than the rest of the composites. MBBA is a negative dielectric material, hence the application of a voltage across the cell was able to switch the alignment from a dark to a bright state for all composites. However, above a certain voltage (>threshold voltage), the bright state produced some instabilities. The value of dielectric permittivity was observed to decrease with increasing concentration, confirming the effect of CDs in producing homeotropic alignment in MBBA. Measurements as a function of temperature were conducted to examine the thermal stability of the induced alignment. The alignment was found to be stable throughout the nematic phase of MBBA. The induction of such alignment without conventional alignment (i.e., rubbing of polyimides) technique can be helpful in addressing the evolving display demands by making liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and other display devices cost effective. 

The Gribov-Zwanziger prescription applied within Yang-Mills theory is demonstrated to be an efficient method for refining the theory’s infrared dynamics. We study the collisional energy loss experienced by a high-energetic test parton as it traverses through the Grivov plasma at finite temperature. To achieve this, we employ a semiclassical approach that considers the parton’s energy loss while accounting for the backreaction induced by the polarization effects due to its motion in the medium. The polarization tensor of the medium is estimated within a nonperturbative resummation considering the Gribov-Zwanziger approach. The modification of the gluon and ghost loops due to the presence of the Gribov parameter plays a vital role in our estimation. We observe that the nonperturbative interactions have a sizable effect on the parton energy loss. Further, we discuss the implications of our findings in the context of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. 

Abstract Thesynandantiisomers of [Fe^IV(O)(TMC)]²⁺(TMC=tetramethylcyclam) represent the first isolated pair of synthetic non‐heme oxoiron(IV) complexes with identical ligand topology, differing only in the position of the oxo unit bound to the iron center. Both isomers have previously been characterized. Reported here is that thesynisomer [Fe^IV(O_syn)(TMC)(NCMe)]²⁺(2) converts into itsantiform [Fe^IV(O_anti)(TMC)(NCMe)]²⁺(1) in MeCN, an isomerization facilitated by water and monitored most readily by¹H NMR and Raman spectroscopy. Indeed, when H₂¹⁸O is introduced to2, the nascent1becomes¹⁸O‐labeled. These results provide compelling evidence for a mechanism involving direct binding of a water moleculetransto the oxo atom in2with subsequent oxo–hydroxo tautomerism for its incorporation as the oxo atom of1. The nonplanar nature of the TMC supporting ligand makes this isomerization an irreversible transformation, unlike for their planar heme counterparts.