| Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 61, Number 5, March 2003
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 646 - 652 | |
| Section | Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2003-00120-y | |
| Published online | 01 February 2003 | |
Novel surface-induced modulated texture in thick nematic samples
1
Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Université de Picardie 33 rue Saint-Leu, 80039 Amiens, France
2
Dipartimento di Fisica del Politecnico e INFM Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Received:
18
July
2002
Accepted:
16
December
2002
A novel macroscopic stripe texture has been observed in thick
homeotropic nematic cells by polarizing microscopy. The stripes
involve a splay-bend deformation of the nematic director. They
are stable in a temperature range of about 2
and
are localized at the nematic-substrate interface. The observed
phenomena are explained, within a phenomenological model, as a
result of linear terms of the deformation tensor entering the
interfacial-layer free energy. When the surface elastic constants
are strong enough, the modulated texture can occur if the
anchoring energy is lower than a critical value of 
.
PACS: 61.30.Hn – Surface phenomena: alignment, anchoring, anchoring transitions, surface-induced layering, surface-induced ordering, wetting, prewetting transitions, and wetting transitions / 68.08.-p – Liquid-solid interfaces / 75.70.Kw – Domain structure (including magnetic bubbles)
© EDP Sciences, 2003
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