“Colored” inorganic dopants for inducing liquid crystal chiral nematic and blue phases: monitoring of dopant–host interaction by Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

A new ruthenium complex that effectively induces chiral nematic and blue phases upon doping with a nematic liquid crystal was developed. The red-colored dopant exhibits strong Raman scattering in solution and nematics even at low concentrations. Further measurements at various concentrations strongly suggested homogeneous dispersion of the dopant in chiral nematics.