Quasi-long-range order in nematics confined in random porous media
We study the effect of random porous matrices on the ordering in nematic liquid crystals. The randomness destroys orientational long-range order and drives the liquid crystal into a glass state. We predict two glass phases, one of which possesses quasi-long-range order. In this state the correlation length is infinite and the correlation function of the order parameter obeys a power dependence on the distance. The small-angle light-scattering amplitude diverges but slower than in the bulk nematic. In the uniaxially strained porous matrices two new phases emerge. One type of strain induces an anisotropic quasi-long-range-ordered state while the other stabilizes nematic long-range order.
Feldman
DE
Condensed Matter Physics Department, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel and and Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, 142432 Chernogolovka, Moscow region, Russia.