Surface tension and capillary waves at the nematic-isotropic interface in ternary mixtures of liquid crystal, colloids, and impurities

Faraday waves on a nematic liquid crystal, and its coupling with Marangoni convection about the thermal phase transition

Using a linear hydrodynamic theory, we demonstrate that Faraday waves occur in liquid crystalline fluids. The use of already experimentally known material parameters of a N-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-4-butylaniline liquid crystal allows us to confirm and realize the predictions of this theory. It provides the critical wave number and necessary driving acceleration at instability wave onset. Additionally, these observables experience an abrupt change originated by Marangoni convection due to the temperature gradient at the isotropic-nematic phase transition temperature. Correspondingly, the Marangoni number versus temperature also shows a sharp change in the transition temperature.

Droplet relaxation in Hele-Shaw geometry: Application to the measurement of the nematic-isotropic surface tension

Shape measurements after the coalescence of isotropic droplets embedded in a thin sample of a homeotropic nematic phase provides a tool to measure the nematic-isotropic surface tension. In addition, this experiment allows us to check the scaling laws recently given by Brun et al. [P.-T. Brun, M. Nagel, and F. Gallaire, Phys. Rev. E 88, 043009 (2013)] to explain the relaxation of ellipsoidal droplets in a Hele-Shaw cell.

Elasto- and electro-capillary instabilities of a nematic-isotropic interface: Experimental results

Recently, we have shown the existence of an electro-capillary instability of a nematic-isotropic interface stabilized by a temperature gradient (P. Oswald, EPL 90, 16005 (2010)). This instability results from a competition between the destabilizing action of the electric Maxwell stress and the stabilizing action of the thermal and capillary forces. The control parameters are the temperature gradient G , the applied voltage V and the thickness h of the nematic layer. In this paper, we present new experimental results on this instability in both the linear and nonlinear regimes. In particular, very rich phase diagrams are mapped out in the (h, V) plane for three different values of G . The divergence of the growth time close to the onset of instability is also studied in detail. In addition, we show the existence at low voltages of another instability of the de Gennes type, where the elastic Ericksen stress is responsible for the destabilization. In this case, a hill-and-valley structure or a square array of umbilics develop at the interface depending on the values of h , V and G .

A molecular dynamics study of ferroelectric nanoparticles immersed in a nematic liquid crystal

A large number of interesting phenomena related to the insertion of colloidal particles in liquid crystals (LC) have recently been reported. Here, we investigate effects caused by the addition of spherically shaped ferroelectric nanoparticles to a nematic liquid crystal. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, the density of LC molecules, the orientational order parameter, and the polar and azimuthal angle profiles are calculated as functions of the distance to the center of the immersed nanoparticle for different temperatures of the system. We observe that the assembly of ferroelectric nanoparticles enhances the nematic order in the LC medium changing many properties of its host above the nematic-isotropic transition temperature T (*) (NI) .

Sliding planar anchoring and viscous surface torque in a cholesteric liquid crystal

We propose a surface treatment allowing one to obtain a sliding planar anchoring of nematic (or cholesteric) liquid crystals. It consists of depositing a thin layer of the polymercaptan hardener of an epoxy resin on an isotropic substrate (bare or ITO-coated glass plates). Microscopic observations of defect annihilations and capacitance measurements show that the molecules align parallel to the surface and slide viscously on it when they change orientation, which implies a zero (or extremely small) azimuthal anchoring energy. In contrast, the zenithal anchoring energy W theta is found to be larger than 3 x 10(-5)J/m2. We also measured the liquid crystal rotational surface viscosity gammaS by a thermo-optical method using the large temperature variation of the pitch of a compensated cholesteric mixture. We found that the sliding length gammaS/gamma1 (where gamma1 is the bulk rotational viscosity) is very large in comparison with the length of a liquid crystal molecule. This result is explained by a simple model which takes into account the diffusion of the liquid crystal within the polymer layer.