Periodic stripe domains and hybrid-alignment regime in nematic liquid crystals: Threshold analysis.

Magnetic field effect on periodic stripe domains in nematic liquid crystals.

On the Electric Field Induced Stripe Instability Threshold of Twisted Nematic Layers

Most liquid crystal displays make use of the elect roopt ic properties of twisted nematic layers. Both the s tandard twisted nematic displays of 90° twist [1] as well as the recently developed 'supertwist ' displays of more than 180° twist [2] require director fields which depend only on one spatial coordinate, the coordinate z parallel to the layer normal. Director fields which depend on more ...

Role of initial conditions in the decay of spatially periodic patterns in a nematic liquid crystal.

The decay of stripe patterns in planarly aligned nematic liquid crystals has been studied experimentally and theoretically. The initial patterns have been generated by the electrohydrodynamic instability and a light diffraction technique has been used to monitor their decay. In our experiments different decay rates have been observed as a function of the pattern wave number. According to our th...

Spontaneous periodic deformations in nonchiral planar-aligned bimesogens with a nematic-nematic transition and a negative elastic constant.

Hydrocarbon linked mesogenic dimers are found to exhibit an additional nematic phase below the conventional uniaxial nematic phase as confirmed by x-ray diffraction. The phase produces unusual periodic stripe domains in planar cells. The stripes are found to be parallel to the rubbing direction (in rubbed cells) with a well-defined period equal to double the cell gap. The stripes appear without...

Stripe domain phase of a thin nematic film and the K13 divergence term.

To verify the status of the divergence K» term in the elastic theory of liquid crystals we study submicron films placed onto an isotropic fluid substrate in the Langmuir trough (Langmuir liquid crystal, LLC). The upper and lower surfaces favor normal and tangential molecular orientation, respectively. The periodic domain phase is observed in a nematic LLC. The dependence of the periodicity L of...