Magnetic field dependence of biased electric currents in nematic 5CB

L. AGUIRRE Y E. ANOARDO

Conferencia; LatinDisplay2012; 2012

An investigation of the electric current in thickelectro optic cells (~120m) with planaralignment and filled with the nematic 5CB (4-pentyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl) has been made as afunction of an external magnetic field. The cellwas driven in the dielectric regime through a3kHz AC voltage. The magnetic field was appliedperpendicular to the electric field thusestablishing competitive torques. The electriccurrent through the cell was measured as afunction of the applied magnetic field. A simplephysical model is proposed for the interpretationof the observed behavior. Experiments show thatthe electric current response to variations of themagnetic field clearly depends on the appliedvoltage. Moreover, the AC voltage acts as a kindof bias allowing the selection of the magneticfield range where the current shows a nearlylinear dependence. The result suggeststechnological applications in low-cost biasedmagnetic field sensing devices.