Derivative-dependent surface-energy terms in nematic liquid crystals

Summary The boundary energy terms dependent on the first derivative of the director are analysed theoretically. Although these terms necessarily arise from nonlocal interactions, they are generally written as purely surface terms. We show that, in this case, the stable director configurations are described by functions with discontinuous derivatives at the boundaries. All the solutions given in literature, which are found by explicitly assuming the continuity of the derivatives, must, therefore, be revised. In a more correct formulation of the problem, the ranges of the interaction forces should be taken into account and continuous solutions are then obtained, which are generally well approximated by the discontinuous ones. The approximation, instead, is not good in the case of the energy term proposed by Dubois-Violette and Parodi, where the discontinuity has the form of a Dirac function. In this case a physically meaningful solution can be found only on the basis of a more suitable expression of the boundary energy. Work supported by CNR under contract No. 84.01186.11.     

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.     

Diffusion of testing particles in turbulent nematic liquid crystals

Summary We report on the diffusive motion of dielectric testing particles floating in a turbulent nematic fluid under the effect of an external oscillating electric field. The particle is viewed as a tracer of the underlying turbulence. We calculate the diffusion coefficients and the probability distribution of the particle displacements, thus showing that the motion of the particle is a classical Brownian diffusion. Paper presented at the I International Conference on Scaling Concepts and Complex Fluids, Copanello, Italy, July 4–8, 1994.     

First-order polarization-activated optical transitions in smecticC and planar nematic liquid crystals

Summary It is shown that polarization-activated intrinsic optical bistability (OB) may be obtained in smecticC or planar nematic liquid crystals without external feed-back resonator. First-order transitions for twist are proved to occur, in principle, irrespective of the liquid-crystal material constants. The light intensity, needed to obtain OB, ranges from 10 kW/cm² to 1 MW/cm². To speed up publication, the authors of this paper have agreed to not receive the proofs for correction.     

Relation between orientational order parameters of matrix and probe in nematic liquid crystals

Summary The phenomenological relation between the orientational order parameters of matrix (S) and probe (S _p) has been obtained and confirmed for a large number of impure nematic liquid cyrstals. The temperature-dependent parts of the parametersS andS _p are proportional to one another and have the same critical behaviour over the whole mesophase range, although the absolute values ofS andS _p as well as their temperature dependencesS(T) andS _p(T) may be sufficiently different. The relation observed is not the consequence of the known molecular-statistical theories of impure nematic liquid crystals. Work presented at the second USSR-Italy Bilateral Meeting on Liquid Crystals held in Moscow, September 15–21, 1988.     

Rotational viscosity coefficients of nematic and smecticC liquid crystals: Statistical theory

Summary The rotational diffusion of a rodlike molecule in a nematic and smecticC liquid crystal is considered in the molecular-field approximation. The microscopic friction constant, which determines the molecular rotation drag, possesses an exponential temperature dependence with the activation energy determined by the isotropic part of the intermolecular interaction energy. The rotational viscous coefficients,γ ₁ andγ _⊥ are obtained by averaging of the corresponding microscopic stress tensor with the nonequilibrium distribution function. The additional activation energy, proportional to the corresponding order parameter, appears in the expressions for the rotational viscosity coefficients both in nematics andC smectics. Work presented at the second USSR-Italy Bilateral Meeting on Liquid Crystals held in Moscow, September 15–21, 1988.     

Surface effects and defect structures in ferroelectric liquid crystals

Summary The influence of boundaries on the smectic structure dielectric properties and polarization reversal processes in thin films of ferroelectric liquid crystals are discussed. Work presented at the First USSR-Italy Bilateral Meeting on Liquid Crystals held in Portonovo, Ancona (Italy), September 30-October 2, 1987.     

One- and two-dimensional deformations in nematic liquid crystals: Influence of the flexoelectric polarization

Summary The elastic deformations in nematic liquid crystals are analysed in one and two dimensions. The influence of the flexoelectric polarization on the elastic properties of the medium is studied. It is shown that for one-dimensional deformations, the presence of the flexoelectric polarization introduces a renormalization of the elastic constants. On the contrary in the bidimensional case, the effect of the flexoelectricity is not a simple renormalization of the elastic constants. The profiles of the electric potential and of the tilt angle are evaluated for the cases in which the substrate is an insulating or conducting material. The validity of the calculations is discussed by considering the value of Debye's screening length of the nematic liquid crystal.     

Controlled decay of electrically induced deformations in nematic liquid crystals

The transient behavior of electrically induced deformations of parallel oriented nematic liquid crystal layers was investigated. The nematic material used was a mixture of disubstituted benzoyloxybenzoic acid esters the dielectric anisotropy of which is positive at dc and low frequencies, and changes sign in the kHz range. The decay time of a deformation induced by a low frequency field can be considerably reduced by switching the frequency to the range where the dielectric anisotropy is negative. This effect becomes even more pronounced for higher viscosities.     

Blue phase of liquid crystals: Light scattering and elastic moduli

Summary The theory of the optical, electro-optical and elastic properties of liquid-crystal blue phases is presented. The efficiency of the optical methods of study of blue phase is underlined. The effects of the many-wave diffraction optics in blue phases are discussed in detail. The universal temperature dependence of the blue-phase order parameter is found for the experimentally observed blue phases. Work presented the First USSR-Italy Bilateral Meeting on Liquid Crystals held in Portonovo, Ancona (Italy), September 30–October 2, 1987.     

Orientational order of uniaxial nematic liquid crystals using electron spin resonance of solute molecules

Summary We present here measurements of hyperfine splittings andg factors of two nitroxide spin probes dissolved inp-azoxyanisole, a wellknown uniaxial nematic liquid crystal, about one part to a million in their molecular ratio. The spin probe molecules used are 1) 17β-hydroxy-4′, 4′-dimethylspiro-/5α-androstane-3, 2′-oxazolidin/-3′-yloxyl, and 2) 2-(3-Carboxypropyl)-4, 4-dimethyl-2-tridecyl-3-oxazolidinyloxyl methyl ester; the former is known to have rigid and the latter flexible structures. These results are used to demonstrate the validity of our model that relates the orientational-order tensor of liquid crystals to the above quantities obtained by the electron spin resonance technique. The model is free of restrictions on the nature of the solute molecules, rigid or flexible. The relation between these directly measured quantities and the components of is established in two steps: first by relating them to , an order parameter tensor defined by a unit vector along the so-called long axis of solute molecules, and then by the use of , wherek is a scalar constant. This latter relation is obtained on the plausible arguments of solute-solvent and solvent-solvent interactions giving rise to and , respectively, andk representing their relative strengths. In spite of appreciable structural differences existing between these two solute molecules, very satisfactory agreements between the theory and experiment are observed for both. Such agreements are essentially independent of uncertainties in our knowledge of the parameters involved. Furthermore, we show that important molecular parameters can also be obtained from such measurements. Deceased.     

能谷光子晶体与拓扑光传输

在传统光学原理框架下,高效光传输问题在集成光电子领域的发展受到了制约。人们希望从物理源头出发,提出新型原理机制或设计方法,来获得整体上的高保真光传输性能。这正好与近年兴起的拓扑光子学内涵相吻合。近年来,光子晶体和超构材料等多种电磁系统都被用于拓扑光子学的研究中,并受到了广泛关注。文章简要回顾拓扑光子学的发展历程,重点介绍能谷光子晶体的物理特性和最新研究进展,集中论述了电磁对偶能谷光子晶体的理论提出、能谷光子晶体分类与微波实验观测、硅基能谷光子晶体与光波段传输实现等方面。最后,将讨论该领域的未来,并展望其在微纳集成光子学领域的可能发展方向。     

Electrical Freedericksz transitions in nematic liquid crystals containing ferroelectric nanoparticles

A new theoretical approach was elaborated to explain the contradictions reported in many papers about the electric threshold for Freedericksz transition in nematic liquid crystal (NLC) with ferroparticles additives. The free energy density of the mixture was estimated and the contributions of the interaction energy of NLC molecules with ferroparticles surface were calculated. Experimental results for 5CB-BaTiO₃ mixture are given.     

Light propagation in highly birefringent photonic liquid crystal fibers

Photonic liquid crystal fibers have already been demonstrated as a promising perspective for creation of new classes of dynamically tunable optical fiber devices. By combining different geometries of photonic crystal fibers with a variety of different liquid crystals it is possible to obtain a new generation of fibers with dynamically tunable properties, e.g., transmission spectra, attenuation or dispersion. In this paper, tunable birefringence in a commercially available highly birefringent Blazephotonics PM-1550-01 photonic crystal fiber selectively filled with a low birefringence liquid crystal has been experimentally demonstrated. Theses experimental results have been compared with simulations based on the multipole method.     

Tunable optical vortex arrays using spontaneous periodic pattern formation in nematic liquid crystal cells

Controllable liquid crystal (LC) defects can provide an effective approach to creating tunable optical vortices. We develop a method to create tunable matter vortex arrays in an LC cell, in which +1 and −1 defects are periodically arranged in a square grid lattice. Spontaneous formation of the periodic defect array is achieved using a spontaneous standing pressure wave without using any patterned electrode or patterned alignment layer. The +1 and −1 defects in the array can induce optical vortices with opposite handedness, and the matter vortex array produces a periodic optical vortex array with orbital angular momenta of −2ℏ and +2ℏ in the same grid lattice. Because the pitch of the grid can be controlled, the method can provide a useful pathway to producing tunable optical vortex arrays for various applications such as advanced optical communication and quantum computation.     

Non-resonant light-induced chirality in non-chiral nematic liquid crystals

We propose a simple experimental technique to carry out the observation of light-induced stationary, precessing and oscillating quasi-macroscopic chiral structures of molecular orientation in non-chiral nematics. Moreover, the optical control of these chiral structures is demonstrated both in time and space, using two incoherent counter-propagating circularly polarized excitation beams. Finally, the relaxation of those orientational structures is also investigated and experimental results are shown to be in good agreement with the theory.     

Diffusion studies in confined nematic liquid crystals by MAS PFG NMR

Pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR and magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR have been combined in order to measure the diffusion coefficients of liquid crystals in confined geometry. Combination of MAS NMR with PFG NMR has a higher spectroscopic resolution in comparison with conventional PFG NMR and improves the application of NMR diffusometry to liquid crystals. It is found that the confinement of the liquid crystal 5CB in porous glasses with mean pore diameters of 30 and 200 nm does not notably change its diffusion behavior in comparison with the bulk state.     

Electric field tunable photonic Hall effect with liquid crystals

The Mie theory for electromagnetic scattering is extended to the case of coated metal sphere with liquid crystals. A new set of vector basis functions for the electric displacement vector inside the liquid crystal layer has been constructed. The expansion coefficients of transmitted and scattered fields are obtained analytically by applying the continuous boundary conditions. The dependence of the scattering property on the geometrical parameters has been investigated in detail. The appearance of photonic Hall effect for such a Mie scatterer is confirmed. It is interesting that such a photonic Hall effect not only depends on the ratio of the inner to outer radius of coated sphere, it is also tunable by the application of an external voltage.     

Light propagation characteristics in quantum well structures of photonic crystals

Two-dimensional （2D） closed-cavity single quantum well （SQW） and multiple quantum well （MQW） structures are proposed based on the traditional 2D open-cavity SQW structures of photonic crystals. The numerical calculation results show that the proposed structures can greatly improve the optical characteristics compared with the traditional structures. It is found that the barrier thickness has a great impact on the optical characteristics of the closed-cavity MQW structures： when the barrier thickness is narrower, each resonant peak which appears in the SQW would split, the number of split times is just equal to the number of wells, and each well in the MQW structures is a travelling-wave-well, similar to the well in the open-cavity SQW structures; when the barrier thickness is wider, there is no effect of spectral splitting, and each well in the MQW structures is a standing-wave-well, just like the well in the closed-cavity SQW. The physical origin of different field distributions and the effect of the spectral splitting are provided.     

Electric-field-induced steering in soliton direction of propagation in chiral nematic liquid crystals

In this work we demonstrate the properties of spatial solitary waves in chiral nematic liquid crystals with an external electric field. Such self-trapped beams, called nematicons, were created due to the optical reorientation nonlinearity for a light power of a few tens of milliwatts. We show that the direction of propagation of such nematicons can be changed by applying an external electric field. Additionally, this effect can be modified by changing the input polarization of the light beam. The experimental results were obtained in four independent guiding layers created by a chiral nematic structure.