title: Unusual Electro-Optic Kerr Response in a Self-Stabilized Amorphous Blue Phase with Nanoscale Smectic Clusters.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan. khoa@rs.tus.ac.jp.|Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Tokyo University of Science, 1-3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8601, Japan. khoa@rs.tus.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Khoa V
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5701-3756
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Le
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Tokyo University of Science, 1-3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8601, Japan.
authors.forename: Miho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hafuri
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Yildiz Technical University, Davutpasa Yerlesim Birimi, 34210, Esenler, Istanbul, Turkey.|Institute of Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Kurt Mothes Str. 2, 06120, Halle/Saale, Germany.
authors.forename: Hale
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ocak
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Yildiz Technical University, Davutpasa Yerlesim Birimi, 34210, Esenler, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Belkız
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bilgin-Eran
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Kurt Mothes Str. 2, 06120, Halle/Saale, Germany.
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tschierske
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Tokyo University of Science, 1-3 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8601, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.affiliation: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan. fumito.araoka@riken.jp.
authors.forename: Fumito
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9387-6081
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Araoka
keywords: Kerr effect; bent-core molecules; blue phase; liquid crystals; response time