Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.649, No.1, 31-37, 2017
Determination of NLC refractive index dispersion in wavelength and temperature for plasmonic applications
Nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) have proved to be good surrounding materials to investigate variations of physical properties produced by plasmonic resonance in metallic nanoparticles (NPs). In this framework, availability of a simple and reliable tool enabling a complete analysis of dispersion in wavelength and temperature of the refractive index of a NLC containing NPs has been developed, which could reveal of great utility. By using the Extended Cauchy equations system applied to a particular NLC (E7), we have here implemented a simple formula that yields a fine evaluation of the NLC refractive indices dispersion in the wavelength range [450, 656] nm and in the temperature range [15, 55]degrees C. This allow also to estimate with quite high accuracy temperature variations around the metal NPs produced by the plasmonic resonance.