Abstract. Dispersions of carbon nanotubes (CNT) in liquid crystals (LC) have attracted a lot of attention due to their unique properties and possible applications in photonics and electronics. However, the dispersions are hard to stabilize, and the doping level in the equilibrium state in LC hosts is vanishingly small. A feedback mechanism of monitoring the quality and doping level in dispersions is required. The characterisation of CNTwater dispersions has been reported, however additional challenges appear in both dispersing and monitoring CNTs in liquid crystals. In this paper we compare different methods of characterising CNT-LC composite materials.
We report the facile optical creation of switchable localized structures in chiral liquid crystals doped with fullerene. In a cholesteric cell unwound by vertical boundary conditions, the initially dispersed fullerenes are deposited from the bulk to the surface of confining glass plates by low-intensity illumination. This alters the surface boundary conditions and allows for the creation of localized particlelike structures with twist-bound defects ͑dubbed Torons͒ that are controlled by electric fields and arranged into patterns of interest for photonic and electro-optic applications.
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