Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Planar-fingerprint transition in a thermoreversible liquid crystalline gel
Alberto de Lózar1, Wolfgang Schöpf, Ingo Rehberg
1Experimentalphysik V, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
Abstract:
A thermoreversible (physical) gel consisting of a nematic liquid crystal mixed with a small quantity of a chiral organogelator is investigated in the planar configuration. The response of the system to an external electric field reveals multistability within a small hysteresis. The relaxation of the liquid crystal under this field is characterized by two different time scales: a fast one that is connected to the tilt of the director field, and a slow one that describes the reorientation of the chiral structure. In the first case, the relaxation is nonexponential and can be described by a Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts law with a stretching parameter of 0.5.
Related Concept Videos
Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing
Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...

