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Director distortion in a nematic wetting layer

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
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), 2741-2754. (doi:10.1088/0953-8984/8/16/003).

Record type: Article

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

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 29557
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/29557
PURE UUID: 9e7adf2f-5082-49a5-9318-80f3d7477250
ORCID for T.J. Sluckin: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9163-0061

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Date deposited: 21 Dec 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:32

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Contributors

Author: F.N. Braun
Author: T.J. Sluckin ORCID iD
Author: E. Velasco

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