English

Virtual surfaces, director domains and the Freedericksz transition in polymer stabilized nematic liquid crystals

Soft Condensed Matter 2009-11-07 v1

Abstract

The critical field of the Freedericksz transition and switching dynamics are investigated for polymer stabilized nematic liquid crystals as a function of polymer concentration. A simple phenomenological model is proposed to describe the observed critical field and dynamic response time behaviors as a function of concentration. In this model the polymer fibrils form director domains, which are bounded by virtual surfaces with a finite anchoring energy. The Freedericksz transition occurs independently within each of these domains.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0205599,
  title  = {Virtual surfaces, director domains and the Freedericksz transition in polymer stabilized nematic liquid crystals},
  author = {Pavel A. Kossyrev and Jun Qi and Nikolai V. Priezjev and Robert A. Pelcovits and Gregory P. Crawford},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0205599},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

14 pages, pdf