20 research outputs found
Orientational ordering in thin interlayers of nematic liquid crystal 4,4'-penthyl-cyanobiphenyl
The method of polarization IR-spectroscopy was applied to investigate the
change of structure of nematic liquid crystal 5CB interlayers between fluorite
plates at the transition from a bulk to a thin-film state. For the analysis of
spectroscopic data a two-fraction model allowing the determination of the orientation
and the degree of ordering of the transition moments of intramolecular bonds is
developed. It is shown that the complete description of structural changes should
include the characteristics of ordering of fragments of molecules both on the angle of
the director inclination, and on a direction in a plane parallel to the film-substrate
interface. It is established that the decrease of the liquid crystal layer
thickness in the investigated system is accompanied by a transition of the biphenyl
core orientation from inclined to homogeneously planar with increase of a
directionally ordered fraction of the molecules, and by freezing of the internal
rotation of the methyl group