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Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Light-induced gliding of the easy orientation axis of a dye-doped nematic liquid crystal
Denis Fedorenko1, Kostyantyn Slyusarenko, Elena Ouskova
1Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 46 Prospect Nauki, Kyiv, Ukraine. fedoren@iop.kiev.ua
Abstract:
We studied the effect of light-induced gliding of the easy axis of dye-doped nematic liquid crystal on an aligning polymer surface. The observed drift of the easy axis is over tens of degrees and is caused by light-induced anisotropic adsorption and/or desorption of dye molecules on or from the aligning layer in the presence of light-induced bulk torque. We present a theoretical model that explains the experimental data in terms of the light-induced changes of the adsorbed dye molecules angular distribution due to their exchange with the dye molecules from the liquid crystal bulk.
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