Effect of varying concentration of dichroic dye on textural, electro-optical, phase transition and band gap studies of zinc oxide nanoparticles induced vertically aligned liquid crystals.

• Developed zinc oxide nanoparticles induced vertically aligned liquid crystals. • Study the effect of varying concentration of dichroic dye on textural, electro-optical, phase transition and band gap studies. • Significantly improved electro-optical and morphological characteristics. • Provides VALC systems for next-generation display technologies. Vertically aligned liquid crystal (VALC) perpetually boosts the advancement for display devices and optoelectronics. Herein, initially, the nanoparticles (NPs) induced VALC (nVALC) cell was prepared via doping of 0.3 (wt./wt.%) of zinc oxide NPs in nematic liquid crystal (LC). After that, a series of orange azo dichroic dye doped nVALC cells were prepared with varying concentrations of dye such as 0.0625, 0.125, 0.25 and 0.5 wt.%. The effect of dye concentrations on LC textures, phase transition, electro-optical and band gap properties were investigated, as well as resulted in a significantly reduced value of the threshold and operating voltages as a function of dye concentrations. The contrast ratio was also enhanced up to 0.25 wt.% dye doped nVALC cells. Additionally, the transition temperature from nematic to isotropic phase and band gap studies were also performed. The present work provides improved properties of nVALC systems for next-generation display technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]