title: Evolution of the discontinuous anchoring transition under an electric field.
abstract: Anchoring transition (ATr), resulting in the orientational change of liquid crystal (LC) molecules at surfaces with temperature variation, is shown to be essentially affected by the application of an electric field (E field). By combining defocusing polarizing microscopy with retardation measurement, a detailed investigation of the molecular orientational change in the vicinity of ATr during a cooling process under an E field was performed. Two important conclusions can be made from our observations: (i) the ATr temperature exhibits a large downshift in the presence of an E field; (ii) the orientational change is always discontinuous from a planar (P) state to a homeotropic (H) state. If the applied E field is below the Freedericksz transition, P and H states are uniform, whereas the surface H state is influenced by the tilt in the bulk due to negative dielectric anisotropy, resulting in a bent-splay deformed state.
authors: Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1-S8-42 O-okayama, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan.
authors: Satoshi
authors: S
authors: Aya
authors: Fumito
authors: F
authors: Araoka
authors: Ken
authors: K
authors: Ishikawa
authors: Hideo
authors: H
authors: Takezoe
mesh_terms: D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D044367:Phase Transition / Q000528:radiation effects; D011829:Radiation Dosage