Director distortion in a nematic wetting layer
Director distortion in a nematic wetting layer
Nematic liquid-crystal wetting at a solid interface presents particularly interesting features when the nematic director orientation at the solid interface is antagonistic to that favoured by the emerging nematic - isotropic interface. We have used the Landau - de Gennes theory of an inhomogeneous liquid crystal to make a quantitative study of this phenomenon, for the case when the solid surface favours homeotropic anchoring but the nematic - isotropic surface favours planar anchoring. By generalizing the theory of Sheng to allow spatial variation of the director, we find a richer surface phase diagram exhibiting a prewetting line or boundary transition shifted from that discussed by Sheng, as well as a transition between two nematic wetting phases, at which the wetting layer director profile changes from a homeotropic to a distorted texture.
2741-2754
Braun, F.N.
994760b2-33b6-4c3c-b6e4-28c672c0702c
Sluckin, T.J.
8dbb6b08-7034-4ae2-aa65-6b80072202f6
Velasco, E.
a05d7ede-062e-4139-861b-8dc035b4bef3
1996
Braun, F.N.
994760b2-33b6-4c3c-b6e4-28c672c0702c
Sluckin, T.J.
8dbb6b08-7034-4ae2-aa65-6b80072202f6
Velasco, E.
a05d7ede-062e-4139-861b-8dc035b4bef3
Braun, F.N., Sluckin, T.J. and Velasco, E.
(1996)
Director distortion in a nematic wetting layer.
Jornal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 8 (16), .
(doi:10.1088/0953-8984/8/16/003).
Abstract
Nematic liquid-crystal wetting at a solid interface presents particularly interesting features when the nematic director orientation at the solid interface is antagonistic to that favoured by the emerging nematic - isotropic interface. We have used the Landau - de Gennes theory of an inhomogeneous liquid crystal to make a quantitative study of this phenomenon, for the case when the solid surface favours homeotropic anchoring but the nematic - isotropic surface favours planar anchoring. By generalizing the theory of Sheng to allow spatial variation of the director, we find a richer surface phase diagram exhibiting a prewetting line or boundary transition shifted from that discussed by Sheng, as well as a transition between two nematic wetting phases, at which the wetting layer director profile changes from a homeotropic to a distorted texture.
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Published date: 1996
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Local EPrints ID: 29557
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/29557
PURE UUID: 9e7adf2f-5082-49a5-9318-80f3d7477250
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Date deposited: 21 Dec 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:32
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Author:
F.N. Braun
Author:
E. Velasco
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