Biaxial melting of the nematic order under a strong electric field.
We study the action of a strong electric field on a nematic, topologically stabilized with director n perpendicular to E. Above a threshold field the nematic order on the cell midplane is "melted" and rapidly reconstructed with n axially E. In a Landau-de Gennes model, we show that the observed transient "melted" state is a biaxial nematic and not an isotropic liquid.
Martinot-Lagarde
Ph
P
Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris-Sud, bat. 510, F-91405 Orsay, France.
Dreyfus-Lambez
H
H
Dozov
I
I