Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-2h6rp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-12T22:26:41.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dynamics of Director Fluctuations in Confined Liquid Crystals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Sarmistha Basu ,
Edwin Arroyo  and
Fouad Aliev
Sarmistha Basu
Affiliation:
sbm@adam.uprr.pr, University of Puerto Rico, Physics, United States
Edwin Arroyo
Affiliation:
edwin288k@yahoo.com, University of Puerto Rico, Physics, United States
Fouad Aliev
Affiliation:
faliev@rrpac.upr.clu.edu, University of Puerto Rico, Physics, United States
Get access

Abstract

Dynamic light scattering was applied to study the influence of randomness, boundary conditions (planar-axial and homeotropic-radial) and layer thickness (at nanoscale) of 5CB and 8CB confined to cylindrical pores and filled with Aerosil particles on relaxation of director orientational fluctuations. For confined 8CB in the nematic phase two well-defined relaxation processes were observed for both axial and radial orientations of the liquid crystal. The first process is qualitatively associated with bulk-like nematic director fluctuations. The second relaxation process (with slower relaxation time than the first one) is most likely due to the fluctuations in layers nearest the wall surface. The separation between the first and the second (slow) processes is clearer for thinner layers and the amplitude of the slow process is greater for thinner layers. This suggests that the slow process is surface related relaxation. The mode due to relaxation of fluctuations of director orientation in the vicinity of the surface of Aerosil particles was observed in filled liquid crystals as well.

Keywords

liquidnanoscaleporosity
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 899: Symposium N – Dynamics in Small Confining Systems VIII , 2005 , 0899-N07-11
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Drzaic, P.S., Liquid Crystal Dispersions, World Scientific, Singapore, 1995.Google Scholar
2. Liquid Crystals in Complex Geometries, edited by Crawford, G.P. and Zumer, S., Taylor and Francis, London, 1996.Google Scholar
3. Kreuzer, M. and Eidenschink, R. in Liquid Crystals in Complex Geometries, edited by Crawford, G.P. and Zumer, S., Taylor -l. Wu, Goldburg, W.I., Liu, M.X., and Xue, J.Z., Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 470 (1992).Google Scholar
5. Goldburg, W.I., Aliev, F.M., and Wu, X-l., Physica A 213, 61 (1995).Google Scholar
6. Bellini, T., Clark, N.A., and Schaefer, D.W., Phys. Rev.Lett. 74, 2740 (1995).Google Scholar
7. Mertelj, A. and Copic, M., Phys. Rev. E 55, 504 (1997).Google Scholar
8. Zalar, B., Zumer, S., and Finotello, D., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4866 (2000).Google Scholar
9. de Gennes, P.G., Prost, J., The Physics of Liquid Crystals, 2nd ed. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993.Google Scholar