Influence of UV light intensity on dielectric behaviours of pure and dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystals

This study aims to explore the ultraviolet (UV) light effects on dielectric properties of azo dye methyl red (MR)-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) composite. The CLC composite formed in the study contains 5CB nematic liquid crystal (LC) and S811 chiral additive. To obtain CLC/MR composite, CLC was dispersed with 2% wt/wt MR azo dye. Dielectric measurements of the CLC and CLC/MR samples were performed using dielectric spectroscopy technique in wide frequency range in the absence of UV light and at various UV light intensities (30, 60 and 90 mW/cm²) for 0 and 40 V. It was observed that the dielectric constant increased with UV light at low-frequency values. Dielectric loss data were utilized to extract relaxation frequency which was observed to increase with UV light exposure. Dielectric anisotropy of CLC sample exhibited typical transition from p-type to n-type, but this behaviour disappears for CLC/MR composite above 60 mW/cm² UV light intensity. Cole–Cole plots were used for extraction of dielectric relaxation data and obtained results showed that CLC sample shows Debye type relaxation only at 0 V whereas CLC/MR composite exhibits non-Debye type relaxation both at 0 V and 40 V. Moreover, conductivity properties of the samples were also investigated, and dc conductivity values were extracted from experimental ac conductivity values. It was found that MR incorporation increased dc conductivity, also it was significantly increased by UV light exposure and thus similar effect was also observed in current–voltage characteristics of the samples. The results show that azo dye MR molecules are suitable for CLCs since they lead to some enhancements in dielectric and electrical properties.