Buckling instability in liquid crystalline physical gels

In a nematic gel we observe a low-energy buckling deformation arising from soft and semisoft elastic modes. We prepare the self-assembled gel by dissolving a coil-side-group liquid-crystalline polymer-coil copolymer in a nematic liquid crystal. The gel has long network strands and a precisely tailored structure, making it ideal for studying nematic rubber elasticity. Under polarized optical microscopy we observe a striped texture that forms when gels uniformly aligned at 35 degrees C are cooled to room temperature. We model the instability using the molecular theory of nematic rubber elasticity, and the theory correctly captures the change in pitch length with sample thickness and polymer concentration. This buckling instability is a clear example of a low-energy deformation that arises in materials where polymer network strains are coupled to the director orientation.     

Exposure and temperature dependences of contact angle of liquid crystals on photoaligning surface

We report on first studies of wetting of liquid crystal on photoaligning surface. We observed strong light-induced variations of a contact angle of a liquid LC 5CB on a photoaligning surface of fluoro-polyvinyl-cinnamate (PVCN-F) and we connected these variations with changes of PVCN-F polarity. We also present drastic changes of the contact angle of a nematic liquid crystal (MLC-6080) on the PVCN-F surface in a vicinity of temperature anchoring transition of liquid crystal from homeotropic orientation to planar one. We did not find any peculiarities in temperature dependence of the contact angle of isotropic liquid (glycerol) on PVCN-F and of nematic liquid crystal on pure glass in the same temperature range. It allows us to suggest that rearrangement of LC molecules and flexible fragments in the LC-polymer interface are responsible for the change of surface tensions both of LC and polymer and the observed jump of the contact angle.     

聚合物网络稳定液晶膜的制备与研究

实验发现在液晶中添加少量的预聚物单体,利用光聚合诱导相分离的方法可以形成反型显示模式的聚合物网络稳定液晶膜。该膜在平时呈现透明态,在电场的调节下呈散射态。本文观察了在不同光照时间、不同光强下制得样品的聚合物网络织构,分析了在聚合过程中形成网络的形状、大小与致密程度,并对实验结果进行了相关的讨论。     

Creation of tunable absolute bandgaps in a two-dimensional anisotropic photonic crystal modulated by a nematic liquid crystal

Photonic crystals (PCs) have many potential applications because of their ability to control light-wave propagation. We have investigated the tunable absolute bandgap in a two-dimensional anisotropic photonic crystal structures modulated by a nematic liquid crystal. The PC structure composed of an anisotropic-dielectric cylinder in the liquid crystal medium is studied by solving Maxwell's equations using the plane wave expansion method. The photonic band structures are found to exhibit absolute bandgaps for the square and triangular lattices. Numerical simulations show that the absolute bandgaps can be continuously tuned in the square and triangular lattices consisting of anisotropic-dielectric cylinders by infiltrating nematic liquid crystals. Such a mechanism of bandgap adjustment should open up a new application for designing components in photonic integrated circuits.     

Phase diagram of hard colloidal platelets: a theoretical account

We construct the complete liquid crystal phase diagram of hard plate-like cylinders for variable aspect ratio using Onsager's second virial theory and employing the Parsons–Lee decoupling approximation to account for higher-body interactions in the isotropic and nematic fluid phases. The stability of the solid (columnar) state at high packing fraction is included by invoking a simple equation of state based on a Lennard–Jones–Devonshire cell model which has proven to be quantitatively reliable over a large range of packing fractions. By employing an asymptotic analysis based on the Gaussian approximation we are able to show that the nematic–columnar transition is universal and independent of particle shape. The predicted phase diagram is in qualitative agreement with simulation results.     

Light scattering by some nematic liquid crystals due to phase transitions

New computer modelling of light scattering and its propagation through liquid crystal has been presented using T-matrix method in the structural phase transition regions. Numerical aspects of light scattering process, which are based on numerically solving Maxwell's equations, were calculated for some nematic liquid crystals. Firstly, we described in detail T-matrix method for computing light scattering from nematic liquid crystals and presented results of benchmark computations for the considered model. We reported results of extensive calculations for polydisperse, randomly oriented rod-like multilayered systems (nematic liquid crystals). Our results are associated with light scattering by ferroelectric and ferroelastic materials.     

Phase transitions in lyotropic nematic gels

In this paper, we discuss the equilibrium phases and collapse transitions of a lyotropic nematic gel immersed in an isotropic solvent. A nematic gel consists of a cross-linked polymer network with rod-like molecules embedded in it. Upon decreasing the quality of the solvent, we find that a lyotropic nematic gel undergoes a discontinuous volume change accompanied by an isotropic-nematic transition. We also present phase diagrams that these systems may exhibit. In particular, we show that coexistence of two isotropic phases, of two nematic phases, or of an isotropic and a nematic phase can occur. Received 15 February 2002 and Received in final form 14 June 2002     

梳型高分子聚合物向列相液晶的相变

本文根据Freiser关于向列相液晶分子相互作用模型,利用平均场理论,建立了梳型高分子聚合物向列相液晶分子的哈密顿量,导出序参数自洽方程,得到各向同性相至单轴向列相以及单轴至双轴向列相的相变,结果表明,当分子主、侧链耦合项中排斥作用及主、侧链中较强向列相场的场强增大时,单轴至双轴向列相相变温度升高,并从一级相变逐渐变为二级相变。 关键词：     

Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of 3D Nematic Liquid Crystal near Phase Transition

Phase transition between nematic and isotropic liquid crystal is a very weak first order phase transition.We avoid to use the normal Landau-de Gennes‘s free energy that reduces a strong first order transition,and set up a data base of free energy calculated by means of Tao-Sheng-Lin‘s extended molecular field theory that can explain the experiments of the equilibrium properties of nematic liquid crystal very well.Then we use the free energy method of lattice Boltzmann developed by Oxford group to study the phase decomposition,pattern formation in the flow of the liquid crystal near transition temperature.     

Structure and thermodynamics of associating rods solutions

Physical gelation in rod-like associating polymer solutions is analyzed by computer simulations and by mean field models. The structural gelation (SG) transition is determined by a rapid change in the cluster weight average. The analytically determined SG transition is in good agreement with the simulation results. At low temperatures we observe a peak in the heat capacity, which maximum is associated with phase segregation. The SG transition is sensitive to the number of associating groups per rod but nearly insensitive to the spatial distribution of associating groups around the rods. Phase segregation is strongly dependent on both the number and distribution of associating groups per rod. We find negligible overall nematic order near the SG transition and only partial local nematic order of the clusters at the phase segregation transitions.Received: 23 May 2003, Published online: 5 February 2004PACS: 61.30.Cz Molecular and microscopic models and theories of liquid crystal structure - 64.70.Md Transitions in liquid crystals     

Grayscale-Memory Spatial Light Modulator with Polymer-Dispersed Phase-Transition Liquid Crystal

A new storage-type spatial light modulator has been developed which uses a polymer-dispersed phase-transition liquid crystal film and a photoconductor for high-brightness projection displays. The liquid crystal film containing micrometer-sized chiral nematic liquid crystal domains subdivided by a unique honeycomb polymer network functions as a memory layer for an input image. The liquid crystal domains independently maintain the binary alignment states in the opaque (light-scattering) cholesteric phase or transparent nematic phase. Grayscale images can be displayed according to the spatial distribution of the bistable liquid crystal domains. The device exhibits rapid response of a few ms and a limiting resolution of 32 lp/mm. It has the advantages of high transmittance without polarizers and ease of fabrication due to the free-standing liquid crystal film.     

Laser beam manipulation by composite material electro-optic devices

Liquid crystals are anisotropic materials whose optical properties can be easily controlled applying an electric field. For this reason, they are widely used in electro-optical devices. Besides other applications, liquid crystals electro-optical devices are suitable for laser beam manipulation. In this paper, we present some devices developed or studied in our laboratory: a twisted nematic liquid crystal (TN-LC) polarization rotator, a TN-LC protected light sensor, a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) light modulator, a PDLC optoelectronic polarizer and a polymer liquid crystal (PoLiCryst) light modulator.     

Photo-orientation at liquid crystal—polymer interfaces

It is suggested that liquid crystal—polymer interfaces are coupled systems, in which the components mutually influence the orientational state of each other. The photo-orientation process at liquid crystal-polymer interfaces provides a striking example of such a coupling. Experiments show that the anisotropic structure generated by polarised light at a polymer surface is strongly affected by the phase of the liquid crystal covering the polymer. Photo-orientation is significantly more efficient when the liquid crystal is in the isotropic phase than when it exhibits orientational order. The observations are interpreted by assuming that in the smectic and nematic phases the liquid crystal stabilises to a large extent polymer chain-segments aligned parallel to the director, while it blocks the photo-induced formation of chain-segments in the perpendicular direction. Other situations, in which the coupling between the liquid crystal and the polymer can be important, are also discussed briefly.     

Surface driven transition in a nematic liquid crystal cell

Surface driven reorientation effects in a nematic liquid crystal cell caused by light-induced changes of the anchoring parameters were studied. Theoretical consideration of one-dimensional flat distributions of the director has shown that the director can undergo threshold reorientation between hybrid, homeotropic, and planar alignments as the anchoring energy varies continuously. The threshold reorientation takes place when the reference and light-induced easy axes are perpendicular. In the one-elastic-constant approximation the light-induced transition was found to be of second order as shown by a critical increase of the director thermal fluctuations in the vicinity of the transition point. These effects were experimentally studied in the cells containing 5CB liquid crystal aligned by the photosensitive azo-containing polymer layer. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 112, 2045–2055 (December 1997) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Reproduced here with stylistic changes by the Translation Editor.     

Shear alignment behavior of nematic solutions induced by ultralong side-group liquid crystal polymers

Addition of a low concentration of a very long (430 kg/mol) side group liquid crystal polymer is shown to produce dramatic changes in the flow characteristics of a calamitic nematic liquid crystal. This polymer causes a typical flow-aligning nematic liquid crystal to align near the velocity gradient direction rather than near the velocity direction, corresponding to having a tumbling parameter lambda<-1, for concentrations greater than 7.5% polymer. Such flow-aligning behavior has not been reported previously in a calamitic nematic. The large molecular weight of the present polymer relative to those examined in the prior literature is responsible for these new phenomena.     

Effect of nonmesogenic impurities on the order of the nematic to smectic-A phase transition in liquid crystals

By means of adiabatic scanning calorimetry, we have studied the effect of the nonmesogenic solutes cyclohexane (CH) and biphenyl (BP) on the nematic-smectic-A phase transition in the liquid crystal octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB). For all concentrations of BP studied, the transition remains second-order. For 8CB+CH, however, crossover from second-order to first-order is observed at a tricritical point of the mole fraction x of CH around 0.0460. The difference between the two systems and the crossover is explained in terms of a mean-field free energy density expression including coupling terms of x with the nematic and smectic-A order parameters.     

Orientational changes in the nematic liquid crystal structure on a polymer surface induced by phase separation in a magnetic field

The change in the domain texture of the 5CB nematic liquid crystal on the surface of a polyvinyl butyral gelatinous polymer solution cured in a magnetic field is studied optically. The alignment of the nematic is described by the effective order parameter S* of the polydomain cells. The anchoring energy of a liquid crystal with gelatinous polymer W _ϕ = 1 × 10⁻³ erg/cm₂ is determined.     

Simulations of nematic homopolymer melts using particle-based models with interactions expressed through collective variables

We develop a hybrid Monte Carlo approach for modelling nematic liquid crystals of homopolymer melts. The polymer architecture is described with a discrete worm-like chain model. A quadratic density functional accounts for the limited compressibility of the liquid, while an additional quadratic functional of the local orientation tensor of the segments captures the nematic ordering. The approach can efficiently address large systems parametrized according to volumetric and conformational properties, representative of real polymeric materials. The results of the simulations regarding the influence of the molecular weight on the isotropic-nematic transition are compared to predictions from a Landau-de Gennes free energy expansion. The formation of the nematic phase is addressed within Rouse-like dynamics, realized using the current model.