Liquid-crystalline Casimir effect in the presence of a patterned substrate.
We consider a nematic liquid crystal confined by two parallel planar interfaces, one being laterally homogeneous and the other provided by a substrate endowed with a periodic chemical stripe pattern. Based on continuum theory we analyze the influence of the lateral pattern on the liquid-crystalline Casimir force acting on the interfaces of the nematic cell at distance d due to the thermal fluctuations of the nematic director. For d much larger than the pattern periodicity, the influence of the patterned substrate can be described by a homogeneous, effective anchoring energy. By tuning this parameter we recover previous results for the liquid-crystalline Casimir force. For the general case, i.e., smaller separations, we present numerical results.
Haddadan
F Karimi Pour
FK
Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 3, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany. karimi@fluids.mpi-stuggart.mpg.de
Schlesener
F
F
Dietrich
S
S