Electric field-induced new structure transition of negative nematic liquid crystals confined to submicron cylinder cells

Publication date: December 2018Source: Results in Physics, Volume 11Author(s): Sibo Chen, Xuan Zhou, Zhidong ZhangAbstractBased on Landau-de Gennes theory, electric field-induced structure transition of negative nematic liquid crystals in submicron-confined cylinder cells was investigated. The easy orientation of the weak anchoring conditions on the cylindrical side surface was prescribed along the radial direction. When we kept the cell gap d unchanged and gradually increased the voltage U, system showed an unexpected structure transition. At a critical value of U = Uc, two-dimensional (2D) local order reconstruction occurred in the system. Meanwhile, when we kept the ratio of U/d unchanged and gradually decreased the d, biaxiality layer gradually moved from the central axis to the cylindrical side surface and disappeared when d is under nanoscale. Furthermore, Uc decreased when the anchoring energy on the side surface increased.

Source: Results in Physics - November 23, 2018 Category: Physics Source Type: research