Colloidal interactions in a homeotropic nematic cell with different elastic constants.

Abstract

We propose a theoretical description of the interaction mediated by a nematic-liquid-crystal host with different Frank elastic constants. A general expression for the energy of such an interaction between colloidal particles of arbitrary size and shape suspended in a homeotropic cell is obtained. In the cells of large thickness, the presented potential converges to that found previously for small particles in the nematic bulk. In general, our results confirm the validity of the one-constant approximation for weakly elastically anisotropic nematic liquid crystals. For nematics with a high splay-to-bend ratio we predict a larger range of the interaction. Using the dependence of this range on the elastic constants, we show that there exists a qualitative similarity between the interactions in a nematic and in a smectic-A phase. It manifests itself, in particular, in a decrease of the angle between a chain of quadrupole particles and the uniform far-field director across a nematic-smectic-A phase transition. We also demonstrate that the anisotropy of the elastic constants can lead to the formation of thermodynamically stable linear superstructures of asymmetric particles (elastic monopoles) with large, compared to usual dipole chains, interparticle distances.