Structure, stability, and electro-optic features of nematic drops in...

Binary mixtures of the mesogen [1″,7″-bis(4-cyanobiphenyl-4'-yl)heptane] and a long chain amphiphile (e.g., 2-octadecoxypropanol) are examined for the structure, stability, and electro-optical behavior of nematic drops dispersed in the isotropic phase, in planar cells. Subjected to tangential boundary conditions, the drops adopt, besides the escaped concentric and untwisted bipolar geometries, the less common bound vortex geometry with a pair of half-strength disclination lines. The concentric drop, as it grows, switches its axis from an in-layer to the layer-normal direction corresponding to the stablest of all geometries. Bipolar drops in equilibrium have their axes parallel to the easy axis of the cell. Obliquely oriented bipolar drops rotate to attain the equilibrium disposition by the shorter of the clockwise and anticlockwise routes, the extent of rotation decreasing exponentially with time. The bipolar structure is marginally less stable than the concentric, and transforms to the latter geometry occasionally. In bound vortex drops, the separation between the lines varies as the drop diameter, the bipolar and concentric geometries appearing as the limiting cases. The complex course of Fréedericksz transition in all the different types of drops terminates in the division of the original large drop into many smaller drops, each with a surface charge 2, in conformity with the Poincaré-Hopf theorem. In low frequency electric fields, concentric drops exhibit flexoelectro-optic rotation in evidence of their escaped character.