title: Disruption of surface-induced smectic order by periodic surface corrugations.
abstract: A Fréedericksz transition measurement is reported for a liquid crystal cell composed of surfactant-coated substrates. One substrate was locally scribed with the stylus of an atomic force microscope to create a nanoscopic grooved structure. The Fréedericksz threshold voltage was found to be smaller in the scribed region than in the unscribed region, indicating that the corrugated surface disrupts surface-induced smectic order, and that the effect grows toward the nematic-smectic-A transition temperature T(NA) in conjunction with the smectic correlation length.
authors: Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7079, USA.
authors: Ghanshyam P
authors: GP
authors: Sinha
authors: Charles
authors: C
authors: Rosenblatt
authors: Leonid V
authors: LV
authors: Mirantsev