Soliton-like molecular deformations in a nematic liquid crystal film

We study the nature of molecular deformations in a nematic liquid crystal film with elastic energy under homeotropic boundary conditions. The deformation in terms of splay, twist and bend fields of the director axis is found to be governed by the completely integrable Davey-Stewartson-I (DS-I) equation in (2+1) dimensions. Using the line soliton and breather solutions of the DS-I equation, the director axis is constructed, the components of which exhibit damped spatial oscillations. However, the splay and bend fields of the director axis exhibit localized structures of deformation.     

Solitons and defects in nematic liquid crystals under a simple shear flow and in a static external magnetic field

Under a simple shear flow and in a static external magnetic field, the production of defects in the director-aligning regime of nematic liquid crystals has been investigated in terms of the Leslie-Ericksen theory. The equation of motion of the nematic director, which conforms to the driven over-damped sine-Gordon equation, has a soliton solution of the amplitude w. We show that the stationary state with the director uniformly oriented at a Leslie angle is only a metastable state and the potential, which governs the motion of the director, has a nmnber of stable stationary states. For a strong magnetic field, the higher energy barrier between the stable and unstable states leads the director to be locked along the magnetic field direction. However, at the appropriate shear rate and magnetic field the defects, which appear as a stable solitary solution, can be nucleated from a uniformly aligned nematic liquid crystal. We have calculated the stationary travelling velocity of the solitary waves and the distance between a pair of defects.     

Nonlinear molecular deformations and solitons in a nematic liquid crystal

We studied nonlinear molecular deformations in a nematic liquid crystal with homeotropically aligned molecules and hard boundaries. As the basic dynamical equation for the director axis of the liquid crystal resembles the Landau-Lifshitz equation representing spin dynamics in a one dimensional classical continuum isotropic Heisenberg ferromagnetic spin chain, we invoke here the space curve formalism and the stereographic projection technique used in the case of the Heisenberg spin chain. Under space curve mapping, the director dynamics with elastic deformation is found to be governed by a perturbed nonlinear Schrödinger equation. A multiple-scale perturbation analysis brings out perturbed solitons to represent molecular deformations in the nematic liquid crystal. However, when a constant electric field is applied, the director dynamics is expressed under stereographic projection and the molecular deformations are found to be governed by periodic and localized static planar director configurations. A linear stability analysis on the static planar configurations shows that the system exhibits stable deformations.     

挠曲电效应对向列相液晶盒电光效应的影响

研究挠曲电效应对向列相液晶盒电光效应的影响.通过变分理论得到液晶指向矢满足的微分方程和边界条件,利用差分迭代的方法计算强锚定和弱锚定液晶盒中液晶指向矢的分布情况.借助琼斯矩阵的方法,计算两种液晶盒电光特性曲线.此外,在计算中同时考虑了挠曲电表面和体积效应.     

切变流动液晶中的孤子传播

本文首次给出了切变流动下(包括存在外电场或外磁场的情况)向列相液晶中与指向运动有关的孤子传播性质的详细计算。在波速较大条件下方程有解析解。本文还对孤子解的性质、孤子的能量以及偏振光(单色光和复色光)下孤子运动所引起的干涉条纹等做了计算和讨论。对实验的分析表明:文献[12]和[13]MBBA液晶中观察到的黑线实际上就是本文所述的A型孤子。 关键词：     

Dynamics of reorientation of a constrained nematic elastomer

A model is proposed for the reorientation dynamics of a confined nematic liquid crystal elastomer, where the effect of crosslinks is to couple the director to deformations of the elastic matrix. The model combines the (equilibrium) `neo-classical' theory of liquid crystal rubber elasticity with the simplest time evolution equations for a system described by two coupled, non-conserved order parameters. Relaxation from an orientation imposed by an electric field is studied as a function of elastic softness, starting angle, surface pretilt, and the relative mobilities of director and strain. Most importantly, the absence of a `semi-soft' elastic threshold changes the long-time behaviour of the effective refractive index of the medium from exponential to inverse power law decay. Predictions are compatible with recent experimental results by Chang, Chien and Meyer [Phys. Rev. E 56, 595 (1997)]. Received 22 June 1998     

Optical Kerr effect in nematic liquid crystals: a molecular dynamics simulation study

Molecular dynamics simulations of the Gay-Berne model have been undertaken and optical response properties calculated for the isotropic and nematic phases. The components of the optical response were calculated for the coordinate system with respect to the director. Furthermore, the response for the components was separated into the orientational and collision induced contributions in order to analyse the mechanism of the optical response. It was observed, in particular, that one of the depolarized components of the response function does not vanish after long times for the nematic phase, unlike in the isotropic phase. This means that the orientation of the director can be permanently changed by instant irradiation with polarized light. The results give a microscopic picture of the optical Kerr effect in nematic liquid crystals.     

Anchoring effect on switching dynamics of a nematic liquid crystal intensity modulator

The director reorientation relaxation time of a novel nematic liquid crystal is measured through fitting the decay curve of intensity modulation by Ericksen–Leslie equation. Application of the so-called hard anchoring condition results in simplifying the mentioned equation as well as ignoring the reorientation of boundary molecules in switching procedure. This paper investigates the hardness of 1294-1b nematic liquid crystal's anchoring on rubbed PVA and the effect of boundary molecules on response time and viscoelastic coefficient calculation by experimentally obtaining the decay times of different sample thicknesses.     

垂直定向液晶光阀中液晶电光特性的理论分析

采用 ４×４ 矩阵法模拟计算了垂直定向液晶光阀的电光特性, 从理论上分析了影响液晶光阀电光特性的因素。根据向列液晶的弹性连续体理论及边界力矩平衡方程, 求出了垂直定向向列液晶在液晶界面之间相互作用锚泊能为有限值时的液晶指向矢分布。根据指向矢分布计算了一定外加电场下液晶光阀的电光特性, 并和锚泊能为无限大时的特性进行了比较和分析     

向列相液晶中强非局域空间光孤子传输的理论研究

对向列相液晶中非局域空间孤子的传输进行了理论研究.基于非线性液晶孤子传输方程，采用Gauss形式的试探解，不仅得到了空间孤子的解析解,而且还在临界功率附近得到了呼吸子的解析解.通过数值模拟证明我们的结果比Conti和Assanto等人的结果更合理.同时，对液晶中的非局域孤子模型和Snyder等提出的强非局域孤子模型进行了全面的比较. 关键词： 向列相液晶 空间孤子 非局域非线性 呼吸子     

Orientational instability in a nematic liquid crystal in a decaying Poiseuille flow

The results of studies of orientational dynamics and instability in an MBBA nematic liquid crystal in a decaying Poiseuille flow are considered. The experiments were made on a wedge cell with a gap width varying in a direction perpendicular to the flow. Confining surfaces ensured homeotropic adhesion of the nematic to the surface. Above a certain critical value of the initial pressure drop, a uniform orientational instability is observed, which corresponds to the emergence of the director from the plane of the flow. The dependence of the critical pressure drop on the local thickness of the liquid crystal layer and on the external destabilizing electric field is determined. Simulation of nematodynamics equations is carried out. The results of theoretical calculations are in qualitative and quantitative agreement with the experimental data.     

Asymmetry of the time dynamics of breathers in the electroconvection twist structure of a nematic

Dynamics of breather defects in the periodic structures of rolls arising at electroconvection in nematic liquid crystals twisted by π/2 has been studied experimentally and theoretically. The axial components of the velocity of a hydrodynamic flow in the twist structures of nematics are opposite in the neighboring rolls. Dynamics of the breather defect is the periodic creation and annihilation of a pair of classical dislocations with the topological indices “+1” and “-1.” The annihilation occurs faster than the creation. It has been shown that the asymmetric time dynamics of the breather defect is described well by the solution of the perturbed sine-Gordon equation in the form of an interacting soliton and antisoliton.     

Electromagnetic soliton propagation in an anisotropic Heisenberg helimagnet

We study the nonlinear spin dynamics of Heisenberg helimagnet under the effect of electromagnetic wave (EM) propagation. The basic dynamical equation of the spin evolution governed by Landau–Lifshitz equation resembles the director dynamics of the twist in a cholestric liquid crystal. With the use of reductive perturbation technique the perturbation is invoked for the spin magnetization and magnetic field components of the propagating electromagnetic wave. A steady-state solution is derived for the weakly nonlinear regime and for the next order, the components turn around s plane perpendicular to the propagation direction. It is found that as the electromagnetic wave propagates in the medium, both the magnetization and magnetic field modulate in the form of kink soliton modes by introducing amplitude fluctuation in the tail part of the same.     

Polarity-dependent dielectric torque in nematic liquid crystals

The dielectric dispersion in the uniaxial nematic liquid crystals affects the switching dynamics of the director, as the dielectric torque is determined by not only the present values of the electric field and director but also by their past values. We demonstrate that this "dielectric memory" leads to an unusual contribution to the dielectric torque that is linear in the present field and thus polarity sensitive. This torque can be used to accelerate the "switch-off" phase of director dynamics.     

Spatial distortions of the orientational structure of a ferronematic in the presence of external fields

Spatial distortions of the director field and magnetization of a ferronematic (suspension of magnetic nanoparticles in a nematic liquid crystal) that are induced by simultaneous action of electric and magnetic fields are studied with allowance for the flexoelectric polarization of the liquid-crystalline matrix. Soft coupling of liquid crystal and magnetic particles and layer boundaries is considered. The dependence of the phase lag of the transmitted light on the external magnetic field is analyzed.     

NOTE ON EXISTENCE OF SOLITARY WEVE IN NEWTIC LIQUID CRYSTALS

Starting from the famous nonlinear diffusion equation, we obtain the iimportant results on solitary wave in nematic liquid crystals. We point out that there exists the critical velocity of propagation of solitary wave for sheared nematic liquid crys-tats, if the director wave is excited by 1ocal disturbance. Our discussion, which is different from that in Ref.[10], is based on some recent mathematical papers.     

Transversal structure of liquid crystal in a light wave field

The change in the orientation of the director of a nematic liquid crystal in a light wave field under a uniform illumination is analyzed. A system of equations for the distribution of the director angle of inclination is derived for the case of normal incidence. This system accounts for the finite energy of interaction between the nematic and substrate. The dependence of the director distribution profile on the incident light intensity and cohesion energy is studied at fields considerably above the threshold.     

Study of light-induced reorientation of the nematic liquid crystal director by birefringence dynamics

It is proposed to apply the birefringence method to measure the threshold of the light-induced Freedericksz transition and the nonlinearity enhancement factor of nematic liquid crystals by director relaxation dynamics in the light field. A birefringence change is recorded by interference of ordinary and extraordinary components of the light beamaffecting the liquid crystal director orientation. The Freedericksz transition thresholds and nonlinearity enhancement factors are measured for the samples doped with comb-shaped polymers with various degrees of polymerization. The determined thresholds are in agreement with the results obtained by the aberrational self-action method.     

Cracks and topological defects in lyotropic nematic gels

We report on the effects of the coupling of nematic order and elasticity in anisotropic lyotropic gels consisting of large nematic domains of surfactant coated single wall carbon nanotubes embedded in a cross-linked N-isopropyl acrylamide polymer matrix. We observe the following striking features: (i) undulations and then cusping of the gel sidewalls, (ii) a nematic director field that evolves as the gel sidewalls deform, (iii) networks of surface cracks that are orthogonal to the nematic director field, and (iv) fissures at the sidewall cusps and associated topological defects that would not form in liquid nematics.     

Orientational dynamics in nematic liquid crystals

We examine the behaviour of single-particle orientational time correlation functions in nematic liquid crystals. As well as the expected dynamics involving oscillation in a mean-field potential, and occasional jumps between orientations parallel and antiparallel to the director, we provide the first simulation evidence of long-time tails characteristic of coupling to director fluctuations.