不均一アンカリング界面に由来するネマチック液晶の二重安定性

抄録

We numerically study the behaviors of nematic liquid crystal confined in orientationally heterogeneous checkerboard substrates. The director field on the surfaces prefers to align parallel to the surface yet orthogonal between the neighboring domains. We found bistable director alignments in the patterned substrates. The energy barrier between the two degenerated alignments is increased, as the unit size of the checkerboard pattern is increased and/or the system approaches the isotropic-nematic transition temperature. On the basis of the elasticity theory, we attribute the bistability to the spatial modulation of the director field due to the heterogeneous anchoring effect.