Polymer-disordered liquid crystals: Susceptibility to electric field

Autor:	Lopatina, Lena M., Selinger, Jonathan V.
Rok vydání:	2013
Předmět:	Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter
Zdroj:	Phys. Rev. E 88, 062510 (2013)
Druh dokumentu:	Working Paper
DOI:	10.1103/PhysRevE.88.062510
Popis:	When nematic liquid crystals are embedded in random polymer networks, the disordered environment disrupts the long-range order, producing a glassy state. If an electric field is applied, it induces large and fairly temperature-independent orientational order. To understand the experiments, we simulate a liquid crystal in a disordered polymer network, visualize the domain structure, and calculate the response to a field. Furthermore, using an Imry-Ma-like approach we predict the domain size and estimate the field-induced order. The simulations and analytic results agree with each other, and suggest how the materials can be optimized for electro-optic applications. Comment: 5 pages for main article, 1 page of supplemental material
Databáze:	arXiv
Externí odkaz:	http://arxiv.org/abs/1308.2726 Zobrazit plný text záznamu View this record from Arxiv