Lens shape liquid crystals in electric fields

Abstract

Experimental studies of the structure of plano-convex lens shaped liquid crystal droplets subjected to electric fields are presented. Similar to previous observations by Salamon et al. (2020) in DC magnetic fields, we found the formation of an inversion wall normal to AC electric fields. While at low frequencies the direction of the wall is stationary, at higher frequencies it turns toward the external electric field. In both cases, the defect wall is also swept toward the periphery of the drop, where it eventually disappears. The linear displacement of the electric field-induced defect wall could be described by an exponential time dependence without any fitting parameter. This combined with threshold for director deformation enables to determine both the bend elastic constant and the rotational viscosity using much less substance than existing techniques. The rotation of the defect wall at high frequencies is a result of the antiparallel orientation of the effective moment vector and the electric field due to the lower dielectric constant and higher electric conductivity of the defect wall than of those of the rest of the liquid crystal droplet. Uniform electric field-induced generation, rotation and linear movement of defect walls is a unique phenomenon in soft matters.