Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 15, 2026

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Intrinsic torsional reorientations in a twisted nematic liquid crystal cell
1Saint Petersburg Institute for Machine Sciences, The Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg 199178, Russia. Alexandre.Zakhavor@fys.kuleuven.ac.be
Abstract:
The nature of the orientational relaxation process of the director n to its equilibrium orientation neq, in the twisted nematic cell, under the influence of an external electric field, is investigated. The influence of the electric, elastic, and viscous torques on the dynamics of the director is reflected in the relaxation of the director n to neq, with different relaxation times. It is shown that the relaxation time, both for the cases of a strong and weak anchoring, exhibits an anomalous increase with decreasing of an external electric field, whereas the influence of the azimuthal anchoring energy, in the case of the twisted nematic cell is characterized by a weak effect. It is also shown that these torques exerted on the director may excite the traveling wave spreading from one edge of the cell to their second edge. Calculations of the relaxation processes in the vicinity of a nematic-smectic- A (NA) phase transition temperature T(NA) , e.g., at a few tens of mK from T(NA) in the nematic phase, shows that the director distortion in the gap between two plates is maintained to be constant across the sample both in the case of a strong and weak anchoring.
Related Concept Videos
Cell Motility through Blebbing
Blebbing Through the Matrix
In multicellular...
Angle of Twist - Elastic Range
Mechanisms of Membrane-bending
Membrane bending can happen due to intrinsic changes in lipid composition or extrinsic association with different proteins. The proteins involved...
Torsion of Noncircular Members
Oriented Surfaces
Angle of Twist: Problem Solving

