title: Pseudo-casimir structural force drives spinodal dewetting in nematic liquid crystals
abstract: We analyze theoretically the fluctuation-induced force in thin nematic films subject to competing surface interactions, and we find that the force is attractive at small distances and repulsive otherwise. The results provide a consistent interpretation of a recent study of spinodal dewetting of 5CB on a silicon wafer [F. Vandenbrouck et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2693 (1999)], implying that this experiment can be regarded as the first observation of the pseudo-Casimir effect in liquid crystals.
authors.affiliation: J. Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia and and Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana, Jadranska 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ziherl
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Podgornik
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zumer