Coherent backscattering of light in nematic liquid crystals

Multiple light scattering by director fluctuations in nematic liquid crystals is considered. A uniform director orientation is assumed to be specified by an applied magnetic field. The coherent backscattering effect, which consists in the presence of a sharp light backscattering peak, is studied. The Bethe-Salpeter equation is used to calculate the multiple scattering intensity taking into account the contributions of ladder and cyclic diagrams. An analytical expression for the angular and polarization dependences of the coherent backscattering intensity is obtained in terms of the diffusion approximation. The calculation and experimental results are compared. The developed theory is shown to qualitatively describe the elliptical shape of the backscattering cone, to explain the absence of a coherent contribution for crossed polarizations, and to calculate the relative peak height.     

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)     

Behavior of nematic liquid crystals in a variable magnetic field

The behavior of nematic liquid crystals in a magnetic field having a static and a rotating component is investigated. Steady-state solutions of the problem (synchronous regime) are obtained, and their stability is analyzed. The influence of the boundary conditions is discussed, along with possible experimental applications. It is shown that the static component of the magnetic field extends the stability range of the synchronous regime.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 4, pp. 57–60, April, 1981.     

Simulation of coherent backscattering of light in nematic liquid crystals

Multiple scattering of light by the fluctuations of the director in a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) aligned by a magnetic field is considered. A peak of coherent backscattering is calculated by numerical simulation. Since the indicatrix of single scattering for a liquid crystal (LC) is known exactly, the calculations are carried out without any simplifying assumptions on the parameters of the liquid crystal. Multiple scattering is simulated as a random walk of photons in the medium. A peak of coherent backscattering in such a medium is very narrow; therefore, the so-called semianalytical method is applied. The parameters of the backscattering peak obtained by numerical simulation are compared with the available experimental data and with the results of analytical approximations. It turns out that the experimental data are in good agreement with the results of simulation. The results of numerical simulation adequately describe the anisotropy and the width of the backscattering peak.     

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.     

On the effect of an applied magnetic field on the shear-induced pattern formation in nematic polymer liquid crystals

The effect of an applied magnetic field and of the boundaries on the stability of the shear flow of nematic polymer liquid crystals of the tumbling type with respect to the formation of the transient spatially periodic patterns that appears after the start-up of shearing is studied. The unidirectional shear of a nematic director initially uniformly oriented orthogonally to the sample plane and with strong anchoring is considered. The magnetic field is applied orthogonally to the sample plane or in the same direction of the flow. For a given value of the Ericksen number of the flow a critical value of the magnetic-to-viscous energy ratio shows up above which the uniform flow is stable. When the influence of the boundaries may be neglected, an internal Ericksen number that stays constant in a given material is considered such that the wavelength of the periodic pattern is a self-adjusted length. An internal generalized Ericksen number is defined such that it is a universal function of the magnetic-to-viscous energy ratio.To the memory of my mother     

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.     

Paramagnetic nematic liquid crystals

The paper reports new nematic liquid crystals that are paramagnetic.     

Optical properties of chiral photonic crystals in an external static magnetic field

Oblique propagation of light through a layer of a gyrotropic crystal in an ultrasonic field in the presence of an external static magnetic field is analyzed. The problem is solved using the Ambartsumyan method of addition of layers. The results of analysis of dependences of amplitude and polarization characteristics on the wavelength of light are presented for various values of parameters of the problem. The possibility of applying such systems is discussed.     

Coherent ensemble of pseudospins in an external field

The behavior in time is considered for the state vector of an ensemble of coherent pseudospins in external permanent and variable fields. Relaxation of the state vector of the ensemble is described by a Landau-Lifshits equation. The vector equation of motion is reduced to a first-order differential equation. Exact solutions of this equation are obtained for different combinations of both weak and strong fields acting on the ensemble. Conditions for applicability of the solutions obtained are discussed.     

Electric field effects in nematic liquid crystals doped with carbon nanotubes

The aim of this paper was to investigate electric field induced effects in mixtures of nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) with positive electric anisotropies (MCL 6601 Merck) with carbon nanotubes (MWCNT from Aldrich). In planar alignment, the current–electric field dependence and the current–temperature dependence were explained by assuming a Poole–Frenkel effect (i.e. a tunnelling mechanism) and good agreement with the experimental data was obtained. Within this high field range it resulted that in planar aligned NLC–CNTs mixture the conductivity decreases when the temperature was increased. In homeotropic aligned mixture, the conduction mechanism is similar to the one occurring in a semiconductor: the conductivity increases when increasing temperature. This happens because in thin liquid crystal cells there is a possibility to realize an inner contact between nanotubes and electrodes so the mixture behaves like a semiconductor.     

Separated local field spectroscopy of columnar and nematic liquid crystals

We are in this work comparing the efficiencies of various 1H-13C separated local field (SLF) experiments when applied to columnar and nematic liquid crystals. In particular, the performances of the conventional SLF, proton-detected local field (PDLF), and polarization inversion spin exchange at the magic angle (PISEMA) methods in terms of spectral resolution, robustness, and ability to measure long-range couplings are investigated. The PDLF sequence provides in most cases the best dipolar resolution. This is especially obvious for weakly coupled 1H-13C spin pairs.     

Electroconvection in homeotropic nematic liquid crystals

Electroconvection is a classical example of pattern-forming phenomena in liquid crystals, typically observed in nematics with negative dielectric and positive conductivity anisotropies. This article focuses on how electroconvection in the homeotropic geometry differs from that in planar alignment. The influence of an additional magnetic field on the pattern characteristics and on secondary instabilities (the normal roll–abnormal roll transition) is discussed. The homeotropic alignment offers unique possibilities also for studying defect motion. Basic characteristics of some patterns of large wavelength are presented and compared with those of the classical Carr–Helfrich structures. Finally, electroconvection in substances with negative conductivity anisotropy is addressed.     

Bistability in dual-frequency nematic liquid crystals

Different modes of bistable switching in liquid crystals with frequency inversion of the dielectric anisotropy sign are discussed. The study is performed by numerical simulation and experimentally. It is shown that dual frequency driving can be effectively used to control switching between topologically equivalent and non-equivalent director field distributions. The experimental results on temperature performance of the dual-frequency switching and possible driving methods for energy consumption and expanding the temperature range are presented.     

Photoinduced effects in nematic liquid crystals

Temperature, concentration of the solvent and pressure are the parameters that are well known to bring about phase transitions in liquid-crystalline systems. In recent years a new parameter has been added to this list: light. The principle behind these photoinduced transitions is the light-driven shape transformation of certain photoactive materials like, e.g., azobenzene. In this article, we present results of various aspects of our recent investigations on such photoinduced transitions in the nematic phase and highlight the feature that light is a new tool to study phase transitions and the associated critical phenomena.     

Extraordinary magnetic field effect in bent-core liquid crystals

A bent-core mesogen that forms a cybotactic nematic phase exhibits a giant magnetic field-induced shift of its nematic-isotropic and smectic-C-nematic transition temperatures: ΔT(H) = 4 K for H = 10 kOe. In contrast with molecular nematics, in cybotactic nematics the field couples with the anisotropic susceptibility of clusters containing several hundred partially ordered molecules. X-ray diffraction data corroborate a quantitative estimate of inferred cluster size (～300 molecules). The results represent an unequivocal demonstration of the cluster picture of the nematic phase of this class of nonlinear liquid crystals.     

Pretransitional behaviour in nematic liquid crystals

A simple (four sites on the water molecule) potential for Cl^-/H₂O has been generated from six gradient calculations. The potential is in reasonable agreement with the extensive SCF calculations of Dacre.     

Hexagonal arrays in nematic liquid crystals

In this letter observations are reported which were carried out by diffraction of a laser beam, by polar diagrams of the diffracted light and by optical microscopy, being performed on a hexagonal structure which appears in nematic liquid crystals for a twist geometry.     

Thermomechanical reorientation in nematic liquid crystals

Thermomechanical mechanism of the director reorientation in twisted nematic liquid crystals caused by the one-dimensional longitudinal temperature gradient is predicted and studied theoretically. The calculated director reorientations are in the range that can be measured experimentally very easily.