Quenched disorder of a nematic liquid crystal under a magnetic field

Kostyantyn Slyusarenko (1) , Christophe Blanc (2) , Yuriy Reznikov (3) , Maurizio Nobili (2)

1 LPS - Laboratoire de Physique des Solides
2 L2C - Laboratoire Charles Coulomb
3 Ukrainian Academy of Sciences

We report measurements and theoretical predictions on the effect of an aligning magnetic field on the orientational disorder of a nematic liquid crystal in contact with isotropic solid substrates. Different types of substrates present a similar disorder and a similar dependency on the magnetic field amplitude, i.e. a decreasing of the angular distribution widths and spatial correlation lengths. Measurements are in qualitative agreement with a theory where the orientational disorder emerges from the competition between the aligning magnetic torque and the disorienting thermal fluctuations during the adsorption of the liquid crystal molecules on the substrate.

Mots clés: Liquid crystals; quenched disorder

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]

Kostyantyn Slyusarenko, Christophe Blanc, Yuriy Reznikov, Maurizio Nobili. Quenched disorder of a nematic liquid crystal under a magnetic field. Journal of Molecular Liquids, 2018, 267, pp.100 - 108. ⟨10.1016/j.molliq.2018.02.055⟩. ⟨hal-01906564⟩