Freedericksz Transition in a Film of Nematic Liquid Crystal in the Magnetic Field with Pretilt Angle

1984 ◽  
Vol 108 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 93-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajime Yamada
2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
FERNANDO P. DA COSTA ◽  
EUGENE C. GARTLAND ◽  
MICHAEL GRINFELD ◽  
JOÃO T. PINTO

Motivated by a recent investigation of Millar and McKay [Director orientation of a twisted nematic under the influence of an in-plane magnetic field. Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst435, 277/[937]–286/[946] (2005)], we study the magnetic field twist-Fréedericksz transition for a nematic liquid crystal of positive diamagnetic anisotropy with strong anchoring and pre-twist boundary conditions. Despite the pre-twist, the system still possesses ℤ2 symmetry and a symmetry-breaking pitchfork bifurcation, which occurs at a critical magnetic-field strength that, as we prove, is above the threshold for the classical twist-Fréedericksz transition (which has no pre-twist). It was observed numerically by Millar and McKay that this instability occurs precisely at the point at which the ground-state solution loses its monotonicity (with respect to the position coordinate across the cell gap). We explain this surprising observation using a rigorous phase-space analysis.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 1464-1474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danil A Petrov ◽  
Pavel K Skokov ◽  
Alexander N Zakhlevnykh ◽  
Dmitriy V Makarov

We study the orientational transitions in a suspension of carbon nanotubes in a nematic liquid crystal induced by an external magnetic field. The case of a finite orientational anchoring of liquid crystal molecules at the surface of doped carbon nanotubes is considered. It is shown that in a magnetic field the initial homogeneous planar texture of the liquid crystal–carbon nanotubes mixture is disturbed in a threshold manner (Fréedericksz transition). The orientational and concentration distributions of the suspension are studied for different values of the magnetic field strength and segregation intensity of the impurity subsystem. The optical phase lag between ordinary and extraordinary rays of light transmitted through a layer of a liquid crystal composite is calculated. The possibility of changing the nature of the Fréedericksz transition from second order to first order is shown. This tricritical behavior is related to the redistribution of the carbon nanotubes (segregation effect) inside the layer.


Soft Matter ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1279-1294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alena Antipova ◽  
Colin Denniston

We explain the motion of a micron-sized ferromagnetic disc immersed in a nematic liquid crystal under the action of a weak magnetic field using numerical simulations. We show that the disc's behaviour can be controlled by the angular speed of the magnetic field and its magnitude.


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