Liquid crystal electrohydrodynamics in the presence of a magnetic field: the dynamic scattering transition |
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Authors: | H. M. Shehadeh J. P. McClymer E. F. Carr |
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Affiliation: | Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469-5709, USA |
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Abstract: | We have studied electrohydrodynamic convection in the nematic liquid crystal MMBA in the conduction regime in the presence of a competing magnetic field. This field substantially alters the behaviour of the system, causing a metastable surface deformation and travelling waves. The magnetic field also alters the transition between the two dynamic scattering modes so that both states retain anisotropic ordering. A scaling relation is found describing this hysteretic transition. We report the existence of a stable mixed state of DSM 1 and DSM 2. |
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Keywords: | electrorheology liquid crystals 7CB continuum theory |
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