https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2004-10104-3
Original Article
Periodic saddle-splay Freedericksz transition in nematic liquid crystals
1
Laboratory of Physics of Complex Systems, Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, Koroška 160, 2000, Maribor, Slovenia
2
Condensed Matter Physics Department, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia
3
Dipartimento di Matematica, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia, Università di Pavia, via Ferrata 1, 27100, Pavia, Italy
* e-mail: rosso@dimat.unipv.it
Received:
7
December
2004
Accepted:
15
February
2005
Published online:
24
March
2005
By use of a local stability criterion recently introduced, we predict the existence of a periodic saddle-splay Freedericksz (PSSF) transition that adds to the existing class of classical Freedericksz transitions driven in a nematic cell by an external field. Occurrence of the PSSF transition requires a saddle-splay elastic constant with a large enough magnitude and different anchoring strengths at the plates confining the nematic cell. Otherwise, either the PSSF transition does not occur at all, or it requires a field higher than that associated with the classical aperiodic splay Freedericksz (ASF) transition, in which case it is not observable. Here, we determine the threshold field for which the PSSF precedes the ASF transition, as well as the structure of the destabilizing mode.
PACS: 61.30.Hn Surface phenomena: alignment, anchoring, anchoring transitions, surface-induced layering, surface-induced ordering, wetting, prewetting transitions, and wetting transitions – / 61.30.Dk Continuum models and theories of liquid crystal structure –
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2005
