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Updated: Feb 10, 2026
High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Director gliding in a nematic liquid crystal layer: Quantitative comparison with experiments
E Mema1, L Kondic1, L J Cummings1
1Department of Mathematical Sciences and Center for Applied Mathematics and Statistics New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey 07102, USA.
Abstract:
The interaction between nematic liquid crystals and polymer-coated substrates may lead to slow reorientation of the easy axis (so-called "director gliding") when a prolonged external field is applied. We consider the experimental evidence of zenithal gliding observed by Joly et al. [Phys. Rev. E 70, 050701 (2004)PLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.70.050701] and Buluy et al. [J. Soc. Inf. Disp. 14, 603 (2006)1071-092210.1889/1.2235686] as well as azimuthal gliding observed by S. Faetti and P. Marianelli [Liq. Cryst. 33, 327 (2006)LICRE60267-829210.1080/02678290500512227], and we present a simple, physically motivated model that captures the slow dynamics of gliding, both in the presence of an electric field and after the electric field is turned off. We make a quantitative comparison of our model results and the experimental data and conclude that our model explains the gliding evolution very well.
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