Modeling planar degenerate wetting and anchoring in nematic liquid crystals

We propose a simple surface potential favoring the planar degenerate anchoring of nematic liquid crystals, i.e., the tendency of the molecules to align parallel to one another along any direction parallel to the surface. We show that, at lowest order in the tensorial Landau-de Gennes order-parameter...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2005-11, Vol.72 (3), p.403-409
Main Authors: Fournier, J.-B, Galatola, P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Condensed Matter
Physics
Soft Condensed Matter
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Summary:We propose a simple surface potential favoring the planar degenerate anchoring of nematic liquid crystals, i.e., the tendency of the molecules to align parallel to one another along any direction parallel to the surface. We show that, at lowest order in the tensorial Landau-de Gennes order-parameter, fourth-order terms must be included. We analyze the anchoring and wetting properties of this surface potential. In the nematic phase, we find the desired degenerate planar anchoring, with positive scalar order-parameter and some surface biaxiality. In the isotropic phase, we find, in agreement with experiments, that the wetting layer may exhibit a uniaxial ordering with negative scalar order-parameter. For large enough anchoring strength, this negative ordering transits towards the planar degenerate state.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/epl/i2005-10253-5