Appearance of weak Anchoring Interface between Polymer/Nematic Liquid Crystal by Impurity Disordering effect

Abstract

The anchoring effect, which immobilizes liquid crystal director near the interface between solid and liquid crystal, restricts a realignment of director by application of an external field. In this study, liquid crystal cells within which the inner surfaces were coated with a polymer exhibiting weak anchoring interaction to a nematic liquid crystal contacting with the polymer were prepared by two different methods. In these methods, thin isotropic liquid layers were expected to be spontaneously formed between liquid crystal and the polymer surfaces, resulting in weak anchoring. The nematic directors in both liquid crystal cells were reoriented in the direction of the static magnetic field of only 62 mT.