Surface and flexoelectric polarization in a nematic liquid crystal 5CB

The temperature dependence of the surface polarization has been measured for both the planar and homeotropic orientation of a nematic liquid crystal at a solid substrate. A conventional liquid crystal 5CB, pure and doped with an azo-dye, was used in cells with controlled asymmetry for light absorption. The measurements have been made by a pyroelectric technique using short pulses of a YAG laser to create a temperature increment. The latter, in turn, was measured independently by a novel time-resolved “optical thermometer” technique monitoring temperature-dependent birefringence by a He- Ne laser beam. In accordance with the symmetry of the order parameter, the surface polarization has different sign for the two orientations, its magnitude ranges from -4 to +2pC/m. The same technique has been used for the measurement of the flexoelectric polarization in hybrid cells. The sum of the flexoelectric coefficients is e ₁ + e ₃ = - 13pC/m at 25°C. Received 28 February 2000 and Received in final form 5 September 2000     

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.     

Theory of surface excess Miesowicz viscosities of planar nematic liquid crystal-isotropic fluid interfaces

An expression for the surface excess stress tensor for planar compressible interfaces between rod-like nematic liquid crystals and isotropic viscous fluids is derived using the classical surface excess theory formalism, adapted to capture the intrinsic anisotropy of the nematic orientational ordering. A required step in the theory is to find the actual stress tensor in the three-dimensional interfacial region, which is obtained by a decomposition of the kinematic fields (rate of deformation tensor and director Jaumann derivative) into tangential, normal, and mixed components with respect to the interface. The viscosity coefficients appearing in the surface excess stress tensor are expressed in terms of interfacial and bulk viscosities for planar, constant orientation, flows. The expressions are used to define the three fundamental surface excess Miesowicz shear viscosities, in analogy with the three bulk Miesowicz shear viscosities. The ordering in the magnitudes of the surface excess Miesowicz shear viscosities is shown to depend on the magnitude of the surface scalar nematic order parameter relative to that of the adjoining bulk nematic phase. When the surface scalar order parameter is greater than in the bulk, the classical ordering in terms of magnitudes of the three bulk Miesowicz shear viscosities is recovered. On the other hand, when the surface scalar order parameter is smaller than in the bulk, the classical ordering in terms of magnitudes of the three viscosities does not hold, and inequality transitions are predicted as the surface scalar order parameter increases towards the bulk value. Received 5 July 1999 and Received in final form 16 November 1999     

Determination of thermal instabilities thresholds for homeotropic and planar nematic liquid crystal samples

Thermal instabilities have been observed when a nematic liquid crystal sample is submitted to a temperature gradient. The value and the sign of the gradient threshold depend on the initial liquid crystal configuration. We calculate the gradient threshold for planar and homeotropic configurations by solving the exact two-dimensional problem taking into account the boundary conditions.     

Liquid crystal films on curved surfaces: An entropic sampling study

The confining effect of a spherical substrate inducing anchoring (normal to the surface) on rod-like liquid crystal molecules contained in a thin film spread over it has been investigated with regard to possible changes in the nature of the isotropic-to-nematic phase transition as the sample is cooled. The focus of these Monte Carlo simulations is to study the competing effects of the homeotropic anchoring due to the surface inducing orientational ordering in the radial direction and the inherent uniaxial order promoted by the intermolecular interactions. By adopting an entropic sampling procedure, we could investigate this transition with a high temperature precision, and we studied the effect of the surface anchoring strength on the phase diagram for a specifically chosen geometry. We find that there is a threshold anchoring strength of the surface below which uniaxial nematic phase results, and above which the isotropic fluid cools to a radially ordered nematic phase, besides of course expected changes in the phase transition temperature with the anchoring strength. In the vicinity of the threshold anchoring strength we observe a bistable region between these two structures, clearly brought out by the characteristics of the corresponding microstates constituting the entropic ensemble.     

Flexoelectric polarization and second order elasticity for nematic liquid crystals

The flexoelectric properties of nematic liquid crystals are analysed. It is shown that in the frame of the usual elasticity two coefficients characterize completely the flexoelectric properties of the liquid crystal. These coefficients, in the limit of small scalar order parameter, i.e. near the clearing point, are approximately equal. More precisely they have the same linear term in the scalar order parameter, and differ for terms quadratic in this parameter. Their difference behaves, hence, as the usual nematic liquid crystal elastic constants, whereas their sum depends on the temperature, like the mixed splay-bend elastic constant. It is shown furthermore that in the frame of a second order elastic theory in the flexoelectric polarization there are no terms from the second order spatial derivatives of the nematic director, or the nematic tensor order parameter. Consequently also in the frame of the second order elasticity the flexoelectric polarization is given by the usual expression. This conclusion is important in connection with the surface polarization recently discovered in pretilted nematic liquid crystal samples.     

Anchoring and structural transitions as a function of molecular length in confined liquid crystals

Using deuteron nuclear magnetic resonance to study liquid crystals confined to cylindrical pores, an anchoring transition has been found. The transition exhibits an unexpected sharp dependence of the anchoring strength on cyanobiphenyl liquid crystal molecular length. A structural transition from a parallel axial to a planar radial configuration occurs due to an anchoring transition from planar to weakly homeotropic orientation at the walls. The anchoring strength is at a minimum near the decylcyanobiphenyl (10CB) liquid crystal length. Long chain liquid crystal configurations depend on thermal cycling and on the equilibrium atmosphere leading to a bistable SmA structure. Orientational order wetting in the isotropic phase also depends on molecular length.     

Flexo-electric polarization and anchoring energy for a nematic liquid crystal in a hybrid cell

Summary The flexo-electric polarization of hybrid nematic cells filled with 5 CB was measured as a function of cell thickness. To this aim the pyroelectric response of a nematic layer with small amount of light absorbing dye dissolved was detected in a nematic temperature range. From the experimental data the angle of the director deviation at the homeotropic boundary was calculated as a function of cell thickness. This dependence allows the qualitative determination of the shape of the potential well for the director deviation which is inconsistent with Rapini’s sinesquared form. The ?apparent? Rapini’s anchoring energy varies with a surface director angle (at the homeotropic boundary) from 5·10⁻³ to 3.5·10⁻² erg·cm⁻². Work presented at the second USSR-Italy Bilateral Meeting on Liquid Crystals held in Moscow, September 15–21, 1988.     

Effect of ordering on spinodal decomposition of liquid-crystal/polymer mixtures

Partially phase-separated liquid-crystal/polymer dispersions display highly fibrillar domain morphologies that are dramatically different from the typical structures found in isotropic mixtures. To explain this, we numerically explore the coupling between phase ordering and phase-separation kinetics in model two-dimensional fluid mixtures phase separating into a nematic phase, rich in liquid crystal, coexisting with an isotropic phase, rich in polymer. We find that phase ordering can lead to fibrillar networks of the minority polymer-rich phase.     

Peculiarities of biphasic regions at phase transitions in oriented textures of 4-cyano-4′-n-pentylbiphenyl

Peculiarities of the biphasic regions at the direct and reverse phase transitions between homeotropic oriented nematic mesophase and isotropic liquid have been investigated in detail in this work. The shift of phase transition temperatures to the low temperatures by the reverse phase transitions have been observed for this mesophase. Nonlinearity of thermotropic and thermo-optical properties at the phase transitions between nematic mesophase and isotropic liquid have been found.     

Orientation of discotic and ferroelectric liquid crystals in a macroporous silicon matrix

Macroporous silicon with deep regular channels 3–4.5 μm in diameter was infiltrated with discotic and ferroelectric liquid crystals (LCs) at the temperature of the isotropic phase, and then, the system was slowly cooled to room temperature, with the liquid crystalline mesophase formed. The orientation of the LC molecules in the porous matrix was studied by FTIR spectroscopy. The alignment of LCs was ascertained by comparing the behavior of various vibrational bands of a liquid crystal introduced into the porous matrix with that for LC inside the bulk cells of planar and homeotropic alignment. The molecules of the discotic LC show a planar orientation of their column’s axis with respect to the surface of the macroporous silicon wafer; i.e., they are perpendicular to the channel axis. The long molecular axis of the ferroelectric LC is aligned with the pore walls, having homeotropic orientation with respect to the wafer surface. In a macroporous silicon matrix, both kinds of LCs show unexpected enhancement of the low-frequency vibrational bands. From Fizika Tverdogo Tela, Vol. 44, No. 6, 2002, pp. 1145–1150. Original English Text Copyright ? 2002 by Perova, Astrova, Tsvetkov, Tkachenko, Vij, Kumar. This article was submitted by the authors in English.     

Orientational Ordering of a Liquid-Crystal Suspension of Carbon Nanotubes in a Magnetic Field

A statistical theory is proposed to describe a suspension of carbon nanotubes in a nematic liquid crystal. The mean-field approach is used, and dispersion attraction, the excluded volume effects, the diamagnetism of liquid crystal molecules, and the strong diamagnetism of nanotubes are taken into account. The influence of the volume fraction of impurity, temperature, and magnetic field on the orientational ordering of a liquid crystal matrix and carbon nanotubes is studied. The concentration and temperature phase transitions in the suspension are investigated for various magnetic fields. The concentration and field shifts of the point of the phase transition between nematic and isotropic or paranematic phases are studied.     

Fluctuations of orientational order in a uniaxial nematic liquid crystal with biaxial molecules and its response to an external field

Homogeneous thermal fluctuations of the orientational order parameters S and G of biaxial molecules in a uniaxial nematic liquid crystal are investigated in the framework of the molecular-statistical theory. It is demonstrated that the molecular biaxiality significantly affects the order parameters S and G, their temperature dependences in the nematic phase, the amplitude and the temperature dependence of the order parameter fluctuations in the nematic and isotropic phases, and the character of the transition from the nematic phase to the isotropic liquid phase. It is established that the fluctuations of the parameters S and G in the nematic phase are related to the temperature dependences of S and G and the susceptibilities χ_S and χ_G of the nematic liquid crystal to external fields, which leads to a change in the parameters S and G at a fixed director orientation. Explanations are offered for the known experimental data on the orientational ordering of biaxial molecules under the action of external fields in the isotropic phase of nematic liquid crystals.     

Influence of the flow on the anchoring of nematic liquid crystals on Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers studied by optical second-harmonic generation

The influence of capillary flow on the alignment of the nematic liquid crystal 5CB on fatty acid Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers was studied by optical second-harmonic generation (SHG). The surface dipole sensitivity of the technique allows probing the orientation of the first liquid crystal monolayer in the presence of the liquid crystal bulk. It was found that capillary flow causes the first monolayer of liquid crystal molecules in contact with the fatty acid monolayer to be oriented in the flow direction with a large pretilt (78 degrees), resulting in a quasi-planar alignment with splay-bend deformation of the nematic director in the bulk. The large pretilt angle also suggests that the Langmuir-Blodgett film itself is affected by the flow. The quasi-planar flow-induced alignment was found to be metastable. Once the flow ceases, circular domains of homeotropic orientation nucleate in the sample and expand until the whole sample becomes homeotropic. This relaxation process from flow-induced quasi-planar to surface-induced homeotropic alignment was also monitored by SHG. It was found that in the homeotropic state the first nematic layer presents a pretilt of 38 degrees almost isotropically distributed in the plane of the cell, with a slight preference for the direction of the previous flow. Received 8 November 2000 and Received in final form 12 March 2001     

Molecular orientations and photorefractive effects in C60-doped liquid crystals with capillary-flow-induced alignment

Molecular orientations and photorefractive effects of C₆₀-doped nematic liquid crystals were investigated with layer-structured liquid crystal cells where a nematic phase was injected. Regardless of the surface treatments of the layers, liquid crystals injected with nematic phase showed a higher degree of director orientation and photorefractivity than those injected with an isotropic phase. The nematic alignment of liquid crystals in an untreated cell is generated by a capillary flow of liquid crystal during the nematic injection. However, it was observed that the grating formation was delayed a little longer with injection of nematic phase than with injection of isotropic phase. Received: 11 March 2002 / Revised version: 22 April 2002 / Published online: 12 July 2002     

Orientational phase transition and the solvation force in a nematic liquid crystal confined between inhomogeneous substrates

A nematic liquid crystal confined between two identical flat solid substrates, with an alternating stripe pattern of planar and homeotropic anchoring, is studied in the framework of the Frank-Oseen theory. By means of numerical minimization of the free energy functional we study the effect of the sample thickness D on the location of the phase transition between a uniform alignment, either planar or homeotropic, and a distorted nematic texture. The solvation force f due to distortions of the nematic director is also studied. It is found that f is always attractive, and for D small compared to the periodicity of the surface structure it exhibits two distinct asymptotic behaviors: f ∼ - D ^-1/2 or f ∼ - D ^-1, depending on the relation between D and the extrapolation lengths. Received 12 November 2002 Published online: 16 April 2003     

Fluctuations in bounded cells of liquid crystals in an external field

Spatial correlation functions of orientation fluctuations in bounded cells of smectic and nematic liquid crystals are calculated taking into account the effect of external fields and finiteness of the energy of anchoring to the surface. The cases of positive and negative anisotropies of magnetic susceptibility or permittivity are considered. The calculations are based on the division of degrees of freedom into bulk and surface ones and on the reduction of the computation of the continual integral determining the correlation function to the solution of the Euler equation with corresponding boundary conditions of the first or third kind. The obtained correlation functions are used for describing the intensity of light scattered in nematics for the planar and homeotropic orientations. It is shown, in particular, that the measurements of the angular dependence of the scattered light intensity may serve as a reliable method for determining the energy of anchoring of a liquid crystal to a substrate for different values of the external field.     

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].     

Threshold effects in homeotropically oriented nematic liquid crystals in an external electric field

The electric field-induced orientational transition in a homeotropically oriented nematic liquid crystal cell is investigated. The interaction with the field as a result of anisotropy of the permittivity and flexoelectric polarization is taken into account. For an arbitrary energy of interaction of the nematic with the substrate simple relations are derived for determining the threshold characteristics of the phase transition. It is shown that, in contrast with planar orientation, in fields above a critical value a periodic structure can occur only by virtue of the flexoelectric effect. The resulting dependences for the threshold parameters in the given geometry are exceptionally useful for determining experimentally the surface energy and the difference in the flexoelectric coefficients. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 116, 543–550 (August 1999)     

Effects of fields and anchoring on biaxial nematic ordering

Symmetry of a nematic liquid crystal phase is broken by an anchoring wall and also by an external field. Nematic system sandwiched between biaxial anchoring walls is introduced as a correspondent to a bulk nematic system exposed to a couple of fields, an electric field and a magnetic one in directions perpendicular to each other, and thermal behaviours of the system are studied. The crossover between a homeotropic structure and homogeneous one occurs, similarly to the bulk system in the fields, in which the anchoring condition of coexistence is shown to have the same expression as the one at the bulk. As to a characteristic phenomenon at the sandwiched system, it is proved that an appearance of a biaxial nematic order suppresses a uniaxial nematic order. A surface transition, i.e., a wetting phenomenon is shown to occur also in the biaxial nematics, even though the uniaxial order is suppressed therein.