Friction Drag on a Particle Moving in a Nematic Liquid Crystal

The flow of a liquid crystal around a particle does not only depend on its shape and the viscosity coefficients but also on the direction of the molecules. We studied the resulting drag force on a sphere moving in a nematic liquid crystal (MBBA) in a low Reynold's number approach for a fixed director field (low Ericksen number regime) using the computational artificial compressibility method. Taking the necessary disclination loop around the sphere into account, the value of the drag force anisotropy (F_\perp/F_\parallel=1.50) for an exactly computed field is in good agreement with experiments (~1.5) done by conductivity diffusion measurements. We also present data for weak anchoring of the molecules on the particle surface and of trial fields, which show to be sufficiently good for most applications. Furthermore, the behaviour of the friction close to the transition point nematic isotropic and for a rod-like and a disc-like liquid crystal will be given.Comment: 23 pages RevTeX, including 3 PS figures, 1 PS table and 1 PS-LaTeX figure; Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Drag on particles in a nematic suspension by a moving nematic-isotropic interface

We report the first clear demonstration of drag on colloidal particles by a moving nematic-isotropic interface. The balance of forces explains our observation of periodic, strip-like structures that are produced by the movement of these particles

Dynamics of gravity driven three-dimensional thin films on hydrophilic-hydrophobic patterned substrates

We investigate numerically the dynamics of unstable gravity driven three-dimensional thin liquid films on hydrophilic-hydrophobic patterned substrates of longitudinal stripes and checkerboard arrangements. The thin film can be guided preferentially on hydrophilic longitudinal stripes, while fingers develop on adjacent hydrophobic stripes if their width is large enough. On checkerboard patterns, the film fingering occurs on hydrophobic domains, while lateral spreading is favoured on hydrophilic domains, providing a mechanism to tune the growth rate of the film. By means of kinematical arguments, we quantitatively predict the growth rate of the contact line on checkerboard arrangements, providing a first step towards potential techniques that control thin film growth in experimental setups.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figure

Photo-orientation of liquid crystals due to light-induced desorption and adsorption of dye molecules on an aligning surface

none8siWe show that adsorption of dye molecules control the light-induced alignment of dye-doped nematic liquid crystal (LC) on a nonphotosensitive polymer surface. The dependencies of light-induced twist structures on exposure, thermal baking, thickness, and aging before irradiation of the LC cells allowed us to propose the following mechanism for the alignment. Before irradiation, the "dark"-adsorbed layer on the tested surface is formed from dye molecules predominantly aligned along the initial direction of the director. Irradiation of the cell with linearly polarized light produces an additional layer with different orientational ordering of dye molecules. The final easy axis is determined by the competition of "dark" and light-induced contributions to anchoring and is aligned between the "dark" easy axes and polarization of the light. For quantitative interpretation, we apply the tensor model of anchoring and assume that the photoalignment in the mesophase is a cumulative effect of the light-induced anchoring on the background of the already existing anisotropic "dark" dye layer.E. OUSKOVA; YU. REZNIKOV; S.V. SHIYANOVSKII; L. SU; J.L. WEST; O.V. KUKSENOK; O. FRANCESCANGELI; F. SIMONIE., Ouskova; Reznikov, Y. U.; S. V., Shiyanovskii; L., Su; J. L., West; O. V., Kuksenok; Francescangeli, Oriano; Simoni, Francesc