Electrical modification of order parameters and director fluctuations in a dielectrically negative nematic doped with a positive additive

Electric effects of nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) have enabled the revolution of the display industry. Recently, the electro-optic switching of NLCs has been accelerated by applying electric fields in such a way that the field does not change the director orientation, but modifies the optical tensors of NLCs due to three effects: induced biaxial orientational order, enhanced uniaxial orientational order, and quenching of director fluctuations. Till now, these three effects have been explored only in NLCs with negative dielectric anisotropy. Here, we experimentally study the electrical modification of order param-eters and director fluctuations in a dielectrically negative/positive composite NLC. The dielectrically pos-itive dopant causes the following changes: (a) a faster nanosecond switching for optical responses attributed to the change of order parameters, (b) an increase of the biaxial order parameter, (c) a reduc-tion of the uniaxial order parameter, and (d) a slight reduction in the field-induced birefringence change. This work provides a basis for further studies in nanosecond electro-optics.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.