"

Cookies ussage consent

Our site saves small pieces of text information (cookies) on your device in order to deliver better content and for statistical purposes. You can disable the usage of cookies by changing the settings of your browser. By browsing our site without changing the browser settings you grant us permission to store that information on your device.

I agree, do not show this message again.

SURFACE ORIENTATION OF SMECTICS C AND NEMATIC WITH SHORT RANGE SMECTIC C ORDER USING A HOLOGRAPHIC DIFFRACTION GRATING

B. Katranchev1,* , M. Petrov1

Affiliation

  1. Laboratory “Optics and Spectroscopy”, Institute of Solid State Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 72, Tzarigradsko Chaussee Blvd, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria

Abstract

Using as orienting solid surfaces a holographic diffraction grating (etched into a glass substrate with period = 450nm and a sinusoidal profile) we have studied the growth of nematic (N) and smectic C (SC) liquid crystal textures of 4,n-otyloxybenzoic acid (n-OBA). A smectic A (SA) state does not existing in the bulk phase diagram of n-OBA, and rotation of the single local monocrystals (SML) was observed on imposing a bulk twist on the LC system. We compare both the erasure activation energy of the SC textures, memorized in the nematic temperature range, and the azimuthal surface energy Q and δQ, provided by holographic diffraction grating topography. We propose a model for the SML rotation and smectic A induction..

Keywords

Liquid crystals, Holographic diffraction gratings, Bulk twist, Smectic C.

Submitted at: Dec. 9, 2004
Accepted at: Jan. 26, 2005

Citation

B. Katranchev, M. Petrov, SURFACE ORIENTATION OF SMECTICS C AND NEMATIC WITH SHORT RANGE SMECTIC C ORDER USING A HOLOGRAPHIC DIFFRACTION GRATING, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 7, Iss. 1, pp. 265-268 (2005)