Orientational self-organization in nematic thin film layer sandwiched between conducting isotropic substrates

Abstract

The dependence of the anisotropic free energy of a nematic liquid crystal in contact with conducting substrates on the value of the angle between the director and the easy orientation axis was evaluated theoretically. The differences between the obtained form of the free energy's angular dependence mentioned above and the traditional form of the Rapini potential are discussed in detail. The peculiarities are mainly caused by the input of the two-component polarized liquid crystalline layer to the total surface energy. The coordinate dependences of ionic and dipolar polarizations are calculated, as well as the order parameter controlling the self-organization of the dipole momenta of the liquid crystal's molecules. The mutual influence of the interface polarization value and the self-consistent director orientation in the vicinity of the substrate surface was explained on the basis of the proposed model. The results obtained may be applied to the problem of the orientative influence of the substrate covered with various surfactants on the contrast and color demonstration scale in flat panel displays.