Katarzyna Matczyszyn | Searcharxiv

arXiv2025

Exploring phase transitions and thermal dynamics in nanoconfined liquid crystals using liquid-phase TEM

Nanoconfined liquid crystals (LCs) and their nanocomposites are driving the next generation of photonic applications. Consequently, deepening our understanding of mesophase stability, defect topology, and the dynamic response of LCs at the nanoscale requires the development of novel characterization approaches. This motivates us to perform in situ observations on model 4'-octyl-4-cyanobiphenyl (8CB) LC using liquid-phase scanning transmission electron microscopy (LP-STEM). We find that the electron beam induced consecutive phase changes from smectic A to nematic (SmA-N) and from nematic to isotropic (N-I). The kinetic dependence of the phase transition on dose rate shows that the time between SmA-N and N-I shortens with increasing rate, revealing the hypothesis that a higher electron dose rate increases the energy dissipation rate, leading to substantial heat generation in the sample. We report on the spontaneous formation of disclinations, ordering effects, and complete process reversibility. Radiolytic effects of the electron beam are discussed in detail, and additional experiments with external heating indicate that the observed phenomena are mainly thermal in nature. The results are supported by calculations of heat diffusion, suggesting the nanoconfined 8CB differs significantly in thermal properties compared to the bulk one. This is the first detailed study of LC phase transitions using LP-STEM, which paves the way for further studies of nanoconfined LCs and for the development of the technique for advanced LC materials research.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2022

Nonlinear optical absorption in nanoscale films revealed through ultrafast acoustics

Herein we describe a novel spinning pump-probe photoacoustic technique developed to study nonlinear absorption in thin films. As a test case, an organic polycrystalline thin film of quinacridone, a well-known pigment, with a thickness in the tens of nanometers range, is excited by a femtosecond laser pulse which generates a time-domain Brillouin scattering signal. This signal is directly related to the strain wave launched from the film into the substrate and can be used to quantitatively extract the nonlinear optical absorption properties of the film itself. Quinacridone exhibits both quadratic and cubic laser fluence dependence regimes which we show to correspond to two- and three-photon absorption processes. This technique can be broadly applied to materials that are difficult or impossible to characterize with conventional transmittance-based measurements including materials at the nanoscale, prone to laser damage, with very weak nonlinear properties, opaque or highly scattering.

physics.optics↗