Nanocomposites Consisting of Gold Nanorods and Nematic Liquid Crystals: Optical Properties

Composites consisting of nematic liquid crystal and gold nanorods have been elaborated and investigated with a polarizing microscope. It was detected, that the nanorods form inside the oriented liquid crystal matrix their own self-assembling well-ordered structures. Nanorods ordered structures appear as a result of aligning layers action and provide defects corresponding to spatial distortion of the nematic liquid crystal director field. The defects have elongated stick-like shape with long axis perpendicular to liquid crystal director. Their size, orientation and ordering depend on the technology of the cell surface treatment, on the cell filling conditions and on the nature of liquid crystal matrix.