Bistable anchoring of nematics on rough substrates

Details Bistable anchoring of nematics on rough substrates Bistable anchoring of nematics on rough substrates

2008-10-22

arxiv.org/abs/0810.4151v1

Europhysics Letters 76, 243 (2006)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

Scientific paper

10.1209/epl/i2006-10248-8

We analyze the interplay between wetting and anchoring of nematic liquid crystals on disordering, e.g., rough substrates in the framework of the Landau-de Gennes theory, in situations of competing homeotropic and planar easy axes on the substrate and the nematic-isotropic (NI) interface. The phase diagram for azimuthally symmetric substrates is calculated. We identify two regimes - a strongly coupled regime, where the wetting transition coincides with an anchoring transition, and a weakly coupled regime, where the two are separated. The anchoring transition is first order and switches between homeotropic and planar anchoring. The two competing orientations are metastable over a broad parameter range. Hence such surfaces can be used to generate bistable surfaces.

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