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Updated: Mar 2, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Direct observation of coupling between orientation and flow fluctuations in a nematic liquid crystal at equilibrium
Hiroshi Orihara1, Nobutaka Sakurai1, Yuji Sasaki1
1Division of Applied Physics, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8628, Japan.
Abstract:
To demonstrate coupling between orientation and flow fluctuations in a nematic liquid crystal at equilibrium, we simultaneously observe the intensity change due to director fluctuations under a polarizing microscope and the Brownian motion of a fluorescent particle trapped weakly by optical tweezers. The calculated cross-correlation function of the particle position and the spatial gradient of the intensity is nonzero, clearly indicating the existence of coupling.
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