ELECTRIC FIELD-INDUCED DIRECTOR ORIENTATION OF SMECTIC-A DOMAINS IN AN ISOTROPIC PHASE |
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Authors: | Koji Seike Masayoshi Todorokihara Masahiro Yamada Hiroyoshi Naito |
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Affiliation: | Department of Physics and Electronics , Osaka Prefecture University , 1-1 Gakuen-cho, Sakai, Osaka , 599-8531 , JAPAN |
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Abstract: | Abstract Electric field-induced director orientation of smeetic-A phase in an isotropic phase has been studied with a polarizing microscope using the binary mixture of octyloxycyanobiphenyl and dodecyl alcohol. Electric field is applied to the samples in which spherical smectic-A domains with and without defects in an isotropic phase are observed. Field-induced orientation of smectic-A director is observed for spherical smectic-A domains with defects but not observed for those without defects below electric field strength of 1.0 V/μm, indicating that the presence of defects facilitates the director orientation. The threshold field for the smectic-A director orientation varies from smectic-A domain to domain, suggesting that the threshold field is dependent on the structure of defects. |
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Keywords: | smectic-A phase electric field-induced director orientation homeotropic alignment defect |
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