On the Effect of Confinement of Liquid Crystals

Abstract

Liquid crystals, LCs, are state of matter with liquid and crystal properties. They appear between the liquid isotropic and the solid crystal phases in substances with highly anisotropic molecules. According to the positional and orientational molecular correlations, it is possible to identify different LC states, better known as mesophases. LCs exhibit a sub-millisencod response time and the optical appearance of a LC depends on the morphology of the phase, which in turn can be modified by different external stimuli. Nowadays, LCs are employed in different technologies, such that, LCD screens, biosensors, metamaterials, directed self-assembly of nanoparticles, to name a few. The practical use of LCs is related to their confinement, which in turn, modifies the phase behavior and the optical response. In this work, we present results on the different structures that LCs adopt when confined in channel, cylinder and droplet geometries. To this end we used mean field Landau de Gennes continuum simulations. We also show how the LC morphology can significantly change due to confinement and the interfacial anchoring conditions.