Electrically controlled local Frédericksz transition in a layer of a nematic liquid crystal

A local Frédericksz transition caused by electrically controlled surface anchoring in a nematic liquid crystal has been implemented owing to the displacement of surface-active ions. In the initial case, the nematic is homeotropically aligned by monomolecular layers of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide cations adsorbed on the surface of substrates. One of the substrates in a static electric field becomes free of a cation layer and specifies planar boundary conditions; as a result, a homeoplanar orientation structure is formed. The features of the dynamics of the optical response of the cell under study that are characteristic of the effect under consideration are discussed.     

Influences of surface and flexoelectric polarization on the effective anchoring energy in nematic liquid crystal

The physical effects on surface and flexoelectric polarization in a weak anchoring nematic liquid crystal cell are investigated systematically. We derive the analytic expressions of two effective anchoring energies for lower and upper substrates respectively as well as their effective anchoring strengths and corresponding tilt angles of effective easy direction.All of these quantities are relevant to the magnitudes of both two polarizations and the applied voltage U. Based on these expressions, the variations of effective anchoring strength and the tilt angle with the applied voltage are calculated for the fixed values of two polarizations. For an original weak anchoring hybrid aligned nematic cell, it may be equivalent to a planar cell for a small value of U and has a threshold voltage. The variation of reduced threshold voltage with reduced surface polarization strength is also calculated. The role of surface polarization is important without the adsorptive ions considered.     

Inhomogeneous threshold director reorientation in a planar nematic flexoelectric cell with finite anchoring energy

The dependence of the threshold parameters and the period of the electric-field-induced spatially periodic reorientation of the director in a flexoelectric nematic liquid crystal (NLC) on the anchoring conditions at the surface of a planar NLC cell has been studied. The threshold electric field and the corresponding wave-number of the periodic structure of the director field have been numerically calculated for arbitrary values of the anchoring energy. In the case of strong anchoring, the corresponding analytical expressions are obtained in a single-constant approximation. A decrease in the azimuthal anchoring energy leads to an increase in the intervals of possible values of the flexoelectric parameter ν and the ratio K₂/K₁ of the Frank elastic constants. A decrease in the polar anchoring energy leads to narrowing of these intervals as compared to the case of infinitely strong anchoring at the NLC cell surface.     

Nematic liquid crystals at rough and fluctuating interfaces

Nematic liquid crystals at rough and fluctuating interfaces are analyzed within the Frank elastic theory and the Landau–de Gennes theory. We study specifically interfaces that locally favor planar anchoring. In the first part we reconsider the phenomenon of Berreman anchoring on fixed rough surfaces, and derive new simple expressions for the corresponding azimuthal anchoring energy. Surprisingly, we find that for strongly aligning surfaces, it depends only on the geometrical surface anisotropy and the bulk elastic constants, and not on the precise values of the chemical surface parameters. In the second part, we calculate the capillary waves at nematic-isotropic interfaces. If one neglects elastic interactions, the capillary wave spectrum is characterized by an anisotropic interfacial tension. With elastic interactions, the interfacial tension, i.e., the coefficient of the leading q² term of the capillary wave spectrum, becomes isotropic. However, the elastic interactions introduce a strongly anisotropic cubic q³ term. The amplitudes of capillary waves are largest in the direction perpendicular to the director. These results are in agreement with previous molecular dynamics simulations.     

Study of intrinsic anchoring in nematic liquid crystals based on modified Gruhn-Hess pair potential

A nematic liquid crystal slab composed of N molecular layers is investigated using a simple cubic lattice model, based upon the molecular pair potential which is spatially anisotropic and dependent on elastic constants of liquid crystals. A perfect nematic order is assumed in the theoretical treatment, which means the orientation of the molecular long axis coincides with the director of liquid crystal and the total free energy equals to the total interaction energy. We present a modified Gruhn-Hess model, which is relative to the splay-bend elastic constant K₁₃. Furthermore, we have studied the free nematic interfacial behavior (intrinsic anchoring) by this model in the assumption of the perfect nematic order. We find that the preferred orientation at the free interface and the intrinsic anchoring strength change with the value of modification, and that the director profile can be determined by the competition of the intrinsic anchoring with external forces present in the system. Also we simulate the intrinsic anchoring at different temperatures using Monte Carlo method and the simulation results show that the intrinsic anchoring favors planar alignment and the free interface is more disordered than the bulk.     

Microscopic observations and simulations of Bloch walls in nematic thin films

We study Bloch wall defects formed by quenching nematic thin films from planar anchoring to homeotropic anchoring through a temperature-driven anchoring transition. The director profiles of the walls are directly visualized using fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy, and shown to agree well with the simulation based on the Frank elasticity theory. A pure twist wall exists if the ratio of sample thickness to surface extrapolation length p is smaller than or close to 1; while a diffuse Bloch wall is obtained if p is much greater than 1.     

Threshold property of a nematic liquid crystal cell with two grating surface substrates

A grating surface can drive the liquid crystal molecules to orientate along the direction parallel or vertical to the projected plane of the grating surface. The nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cell manufactured with two pre-treated grating surface substrates may realize the vertical display, parallel display and twist display. In this paper, the threshold property of this NLC cell is investigated systematically. With the Frank elastic theory and the equivalent anchoring energy formula of grating surface substrate, the analytic expressions of the threshold voltage related to three displays are obtained, which are dependent on their geometrical parameters such as amplitude δ and pitch λ of the grating surface substrate. For a certain anchoring strength, the threshold voltage increases or decreases with the increase of the value δ/λ of the different displays.     

Influence of Surface Geometry of Grating Substrate on Director in Nematic Liquid Crystal Cell

The director in nematic liquid crystal cell with a weak anchoring grating substrate and a strong anchoring planar substrate is relative to the coordinates x and z. The influence of the surface geometry of the grating substrate in the cell on the director profile is numerically simulated using the two-dimensional finite-difference iterative method under the condition of one elastic constant approximation and zero driven voltage. The deepness of groove and the cell gap affect the distribution of director. For the relatively shallow groove and the relatively thick cell gap, the director is only dependent on the coordinate z. For the relatively deep groove and the relatively thin cell gap, the director must be dependent on the two coordinates x and z because of the increased elastic strain energy induced by the grating surface.     

Electro-optics of bipolar nematic liquid crystal droplets

We directly visualize the response and relaxation dynamics of bipolar nematic liquid crystal droplets to an applied electric field E. Despite strong planar anchoring, there is no critical field for switching. Instead, upon application of E, the surface region first reorients, followed by movement of the disclinations and the bipolar axis. After removing E, elastic forces restore the drop to its original state. The collective electro-optic properties of ordered hexagonal-close-packed monolayers of drops are probed by diffraction experiments confirming the proposed switching mechanism.     

Memory-free conic anchoring of liquid crystals on a solid substrate

We show that the anchoring memory of liquid crystals on solid substrates can be completely removed by grafting highly mobile polymer chains. Using grafted polystyrene, we obtain uniform, stable, and reproducible memory-free and conically degenerated anchoring of the nematic 5CB. The symmetry of the conic anchoring enables two different zenithal anchoring breakings, towards homeotropic and planar states. Under external torques we observe both of them, with weak thresholds.     

Temperature dependence of the nematic anchoring energy: mean field analysis

In the mean field approximation, we evaluate the temperature dependence of the anchoring energy strength of a nematic liquid crystal in contact with a solid substrate due to thermal fluctuations. Our study is limited to the weak anchoring case, where the microscopic surface energy is small with respect to the mean field energy due to the nematic phase. We assume furthermore that the physical properties of the substrate can be considered temperature independent in the range of the nematic phase. According to the thermodynamical perturbative approach, the macroscopic surface energy is deduced by averaging the microscopic one, with a density matrix containing only the nematic mean field. We show that the thermal renormalization of the anchoring energy coefficients is proportional to the generalized nematic order parameters. Our analysis shows also that the thermal renormalization of the anchoring energy coefficients predicted by means of Landau-like theories is a first and rather rough approximation in the whole nematic temperature range.     

Gruhn-Hess两体势修正模型向列相液晶微滴的Monte Carlo模拟

基于Gruhn-Hess两体势修正模型,用Monte Carlo方法模拟向列相液晶微滴.Gruhn-Hess两体势是空间各向异性的,修正模型的势参数依赖于液晶的弹性常数K₁₁、K₂₂、K₃₃及表面弹性常数K₁₃.假设向列相液晶微滴具有自由表面,在低温下计算分子二阶序参数和切向内禀强度在微滴内不同区域的变化,并与Gruhn-Hess两体势模型一作对比分析.结果表明:附加K₁₃项的修正模型在微滴表面产生内禀锚定,其大小决定了内禀易取向方向及内禀锚定强度的大小,且内禀强度的大小与K₃₃/K₁₁值有关;空间不完整的向列相液晶微滴由内层到外层有序度逐渐降低.     

Collective effects in doped nematic liquid crystals

We studied the collective elastic interaction in a system of many macroparticles embedded in a nematic liquid crystal. A theoretical approach to the interaction of macroparticles via deformation of the director field [1] is developed. It is found that the director field distortion induced by many particles leads to the screening of the elastic pair interaction potential. This screening strongly depends on the shape of the embedded particles: it exists for anisotropic particles and is absent for spherical ones. Our results are valid for the homeotropic and the planar anchoring on the particle surface and for different Frank constants. We apply our results to cylindrical particles in a nematic liquid crystal. In a system of magnetic cylindrical grains suspended in a nematic liquid crystal, the external magnetic field perpendicular to the grain orientation results in inclining the grains to the director and induces an elastic Yukawa-law attraction between the grains. The appearance of this elastic attraction can explain the cellular texture in magnetically doped liquid crystals in the presence of the magnetic field [2].     

向列液晶表面弹性能K13项的物理效应及检验方法

通过解析推导和数值计算的方法，得到了平衡态指向矢满足的微分方程和边界条件.研究了表面弹性能K13项对磁场作用下的弱锚定向列液晶盒Fréedericksz转变性质的影响.结果表明，表面弹性能K13项的存在对液晶系统的自由能有很大的影响，从而改变转变的性质，诱导液晶盒在阈值点发生一级Fréedericksz转变.给出了发生一级转变的物理条件，它除了与液晶的结构和材料有关外，还依赖于液晶表面弹性能K13项，同时给出了由此判断K13项是否存在的检验方法. 关键词： 表面弹性能K13项 弱锚定 Fréedericksz转变     

Temperature dependence of the effective anchoring energy for a nematic-ferroelectric interface

Specific features of the anisotropic interaction between a nematic mixture and a polar surface of a ferroelectric triglycine sulfate crystal have been studied over a wide temperature range including the substrate's Curie point T_c. The mixture was composed of two nematic liquid crystals, 60% of p-methoxybenzylidene-p-n-butylaniline (MBBA) and 40% of p-ethoxybenzylidene-p-n-butylaniline (EBBA), and doped with a small amount of a dichroic dye. The temperature dependence of the polarized components of optical density D_j of the dye absorption band for the nematic and isotropic phases of the MBBA+EBBA mixture has been obtained using polarization optic techniques. The temperature-induced structural changes in the nematic layer near T_c were found to be related to the changes in the orientational part of the tensor order parameter Q_ik. The experimental data have been interpreted using the model, in which the dispersive van der Waals forces of the substrate stabilize the planar orientation of the nematic in the bulk competing with the short-range anchoring forces in the vicinity of T_c. At the same time, the anisotropic part of the surface energy has two terms with the orthogonal easy axes. The nature of the surface electric field and its effect on the director alignment at the interface have been clarified. Taking into account the known relation between anchoring strength and the nematic order parameter, the effective anchoring energy w_eff for the studied system has been determined as a function of temperature.     

Elastic charge density representation of the interaction via the nematic director field

The interaction between particle-like sources of the nematic director distortions (e.g., colloids, point defects, macromolecules in nematic emulsions) allows for a useful analogy with the electrostatic multipole interaction between charged bodies. In this paper we develop this analogy to the level corresponding to the charge density and consider the general status of the pairwise approach to the nematic emulsions with finite-size colloids. It is shown that the elastic analog of the surface electric charge density is represented by the two transverse director components on the surface imposing the director distortions. The elastic multipoles of a particle are expressed as integrals over the charge density distribution on this surface. Because of the difference between the scalar electrostatics and vector nematostatics, the number of elastic multipoles of each order is doubled compared to that in the electrostatics: there are two elastic charges, two vectors of dipole moments, two quadrupolar tensors, and so on. The two-component elastic charge is expressed via the vector of external mechanical torque applied on the particle. As a result, the elastic Coulomb-like coupling between two particles is found to be proportional to the scalar product of the two external torques and does not directly depend on the particles' form and anchoring. The real-space Green function method is used to develop the pairwise approach to nematic emulsions and determine its form and restrictions. The pairwise potentials are obtained in the familiar form, but, in contrast to the electrostatics, they describe the interaction between pairs (dyads) of the elastic multipole moments. The multipole moments are shown to be uniquely determined by the single-particle director field, unperturbed by other particles. The pairwise approximation is applicable only in the leading order in the small ratio particle size-to-interparticle distance as the next order contains irreducible three-body terms.     

Azimuthal anchoring of nematic on undulated substrate: Elasticity memory

We measure the azimuthal anchoring energy of the nematic 5CB on sinusoidal holographic unidimensional and bidimensional gratings. We find that the anchoring strength is almost the same for all of the gratings and up to one order of magnitude stronger than expected by the topographic mechanism proposed by Berreman. We observe strong memory effects which dominate both the elastic anchoring and the easy axis gliding. We show that these memory effects limit from below the anchoring energy and are the main obstacle in the realization of substrates with weak anchoring conditions. Received: 29 April 1998 / Accepted: 23 June 1998     

Micro- and nanostructures for the spatially periodic orientation of liquid crystals obtained by focused ion beam milling

Micro- and nanostructured surfaces creating spatially periodic boundary conditions of the alignment of nematic liquid crystals in two mutually orthogonal directions perpendicular and parallel to the surface are obtained by focused ion beam milling. It is shown that ion milling provides an easy axis along the normal and sufficiently strong anchoring energy. The value of this energy can noticeably exceed the energy of the planar anchoring of liquid crystals with typical orienting surfaces on the basis of polymer films. Using the numerical simulation, the anchoring energy values necessary for an implementation of a deep modulation of the director field with a spatial period of hundreds of nanometers are determined, which is important for creation of photonic liquid-crystal systems.     

Macroscopic torsional strain and induced molecular conformational deracemization

A macroscopic helical twist is imposed on an achiral nematic liquid crystal by controlling the azimuthal alignment directions at the two substrates. On application of an electric field the director rotates in the substrate plane. This electroclinic effect, which requires the presence of chirality, is strongest at the two substrates and increases with increasing imposed twist distortion. We present a simple model involving a trade-off among bulk elastic energy, surface anchoring energy, and deracemization entropy that suggests the large equilibrium director rotation induces a deracemization of chiral conformations in the molecules-effectively "top-down" chiral induction-quantitatively consistent with experiment.     

First-order Fréedericksz transition at the threshold point for weak anchoring nematic liquid crystal cell under external electric and magnetic fields

Based on the modified formula of Rapini-Papoular, the equilibrium equation and boundary condition of the director have been obtained and the behaviour of the Fréedericksz transition at the threshold point has been studied for weak-anchoring nematic liquid crystal cells under external electric and magnetic fields with the methods of analytical derivation and numerical calculation. The results show that, except for the usual second-order transition, the first-order Fréedericksz transition can also be induced by a suitable surface anchoring technique for the liquid crystal cell given in the paper. The conditions for the existence of the first-order Fréedericksz transition are obtained. They are related to the material elastic coefficient k_{11}, k_{33} the thickness of the liquid crystal cell, the external electric field and the strength of surface anchoring, etc.