We found the dominant reason for the giant electromechanical response in ferroelectric relaxor materials. We show that the giant electromechanical response in these for application very interesting materials is related to the existence of critical points and that the giant electromechanical response exhibits a maximum value near the critical point. This findings has important implication on future engineering and production of sensors and actuator based upon these materials. This work is related to already published work Z. Kutnjak, J. Petzelt, R. Blinc, Nature, vol. 441, str. 956 (2006).
COBISS.SI-ID: 21455911
We studied a phase-transition-driven separation in microemulsions of nanosized lyotropic inverse micelles and thermotropic liquid crystal pentylcyanobiphenyl 5CB with 5%, 8%, and 15% micelle concentration. We demonstrate a phase separation scenario in which micelles are expelled from the nematic phase during the I-N conversion. With our results, the existence of the proposed transparent nematic state cannot be completely ruled out. However, the nematic order in such a phase must be extremely low.
COBISS.SI-ID: 22003239