Interactions on the interface between two liquid crystal materials

Geršak, Rok (author), Čopar, Simon (author)

In liquid crystal applications, boundary conditions are essential to ensuring suitable bulk molecular orientation and a deterministic response to external fields. Be it confinement to a droplet or a shell, a glass plate, or an interface with air or another liquid, proper surface alignment must be ensured—mechanically by rubbing, by chemical treatment that adds a layer of aligning molecules, by using photoalignment or even by leaving the surface untreated, using the intrinsic properties of the substrate itself. The anchoring can be classified as unidirectional (perpendicular homeotropic, or at oblique angles), or degenerate (planar or pre-tilted). However, if both substances at the interface are anisotropic, more diverse behaviour is expected. Here, we present a numerical simulation of a nematic droplet in a nematic host, and investigate behaviour of the director field and defects at the interface for different interfacial couplings. Finally, we compare the simulations to experimental images of discotic droplets in a calamitic nematic host.

• Language: English
• Keywords: liquid crystals, surface anchoring, nematic droplets, numerical simulations, anisotropic interface, Landau-de Gennes
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2020
• Number of pages: 10 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 10, iss. 5, art. 393
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-133683
• UDC: 538.9
• ISSN on article: 2073-4352
• DOI: 10.3390/cryst10050393
• COBISS.SI-ID: 15849731
• Publication date in RUL: 09.12.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Crystals
• Shortened title: Crystals
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2073-4352
• COBISS.SI-ID: 36677893

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 14.05.2020

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: tekoči kristali, površinsko sidranje, nematske kapljice, numerične simulacije

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P1-0099
• Name: Fizika mehkih snovi, površin in nanostruktur

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: J1-9149
• Name: Orientacijske interakcije v posplošenem Thomsonovem problemu: dipolna stabilizacija sferičnih nanostruktur