On the role of relaxation processes in the acoustic mechanism of supramolecular structure formation in nematic liquid crystals

We have for the first time developed and tested a model constructed on the basis of nonequilibrium hydrodynamics and postulating that the structural relaxation processes of a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) in wave fields are important for the formation of supramolecular structures in the form of a system of linear domains in a planar mesophase layer. Distortions in the macrostructure of an NLC layer in the field of longitudinal waves were observed in the frequency range of 0.9–18.9 MHz. The values of the spatial period of domains at the threshold of the effect and the threshold amplitudes of the vibrational speed were determined for 10–300-μm-thick layers in wave fields with different degrees of uniformity for the temperature range where the mesophase exists. The simulation results are compared to experimental data.