We investigated the electro-optic response in the "foggy" amorphous blue phase (BPIII) as well as in the isotropic phase. To the best of our knowledge, such a study has not yet been performed due to the very limited thermal range of BPIII. In this study, we used a single-component chiral bent-core liquid crystal with a self-stabilized BPIII, which is stable over a wide temperature range. The results show that the response time is on the order of hundreds of microseconds in the isotropic phase and increases to 1-2 ms in the BPIII (at TI-BP -T <1), then drastically increases up to a few tens of milliseconds upon further cooling in BPIII. Such an unusual behavior was explained on the basis of the high rotational viscosity and/or the existence of nanoscale smectic (Sm) clusters. The Kerr constant was also measured and found to be ∼500 pm V(-2) , which is the largest among bent-core BP systems reported so far and comparable with that of polymer-stabilized BPs.
The Inside Back Cover picture displays an amorphous blue phase formed by a single‐component chiral bent‐core liquid crystal, which is investigated to obtain the response time and electro‐optic Kerr constant. The unusual behavior is explained by the presence of nanoscale smectic clusters, which also lead to a very high Kerr constant. More information can be found in the Communication by K. V. Le et al. on page 1425 in Issue 10, 2016 (DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201501206).
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