Nucleation Induced Undulative Instability in Thin Films of nCB Liquid Crystals
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-11-07 v1
Abstract
A surface instability is reported in thin nematic films of 5CB and 8CB, occurring near the nematic--isotropic phase transition. Although this instability leads to patterns reminiscent of spinodal dewetting, we show that it is actually based on a nucleation mechanism. Its characteristic wavelength does not depend markedly on film thickness, but strongly on the heating rate.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0105536,
title = {Nucleation Induced Undulative Instability in Thin Films of nCB Liquid Crystals},
author = {Stefan Schlagowski and Karin Jacobs and Stephan Herminghaus},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0105536},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 5 figures