Dielectric relaxation in thin liquid crystal layers formed on cylindrical pore walls

Abstract

Dielectric spectroscopy was used to study the influence of layer thickness of confined liquid crystal (with different orientation of molecules at pore walls) on relaxations due to surface induced polarization and due to molecular reorientations. Low frequency measurements provided information on the relaxation of surface polarization that arose at the liquid crystal–pore wall interface. The dynamics of molecular reorientations were investigated in high frequency experiments. The relaxation of surface induced polarization was slower for confined liquid crystal with axial boundary conditions than for that with a radial orientation, suggesting that the mobility of molecules in surface layers was strongly affected by boundary conditions. The radial alignment of molecules facilitated the investigation of the librational mode. Temperature dependence of relaxation time of this mode was different from that of reorientations of molecules around their short axes.