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Field-induced reorientation of colloidal particles is especially relevant tomanipulate the optical properties of a nanomaterial for target applications. Wehave recently shown that surprisingly feeble external stimuli are able totransform uniaxial nematic liquid crystals (LCs) of cuboidal particles intobiaxial nematic LCs. In the light of these results, here we apply an externalfield that forces the reorientation of colloidal cuboids in nematic LCs andsparks a uniaxial-to-biaxial texture switching. By Dynamic Monte Carlosimulation, we investigate the unsteady-state reorientation dynamics at theparticle scale when the field is applied (uniaxial-to-biaxial switching) andthen removed (biaxial-to-uniaxial switching). We detect a strong correlationbetween the response time, being the time taken for the system to reorient, andparticle anisotropy, which spans from rod-like to plate-like geometries.Interestingly, self-dual shaped cuboids, theoretically considered as the mostsuitable to promote phase biaxiality for being exactly in between prolate andoblate particles, exhibit surprisingly slow response times, especially ifcompared to prolate cuboids.

Dynamics of Uniaxial-to-Biaxial Nematics Switching in Suspensions of Hard Cuboids