Wetting and layering transitions in liquid crystals.

Abstract

Interfacial structure in the isotropic phase of a liquid-crystalline material near a wall is studied by a mean-field density-functional theory. With increasing strength of the wall anchoring potential, the theory predicts a first-order transition from incomplete to complete wetting by the smectic-A phase at bulk isotropic-smectic coexistence, with an associated prewetting transition occurring away from bulk coexistence. The incomplete wetting case is accompanied by a small number (between 0 and and 2) of discrete layer transitions, while an infinite number of such transitions occurs at complete wetting. An analysis of the underlying physical mechanisns for layer transitions reveals that these transitions tend to disappear as the system is moved both sufficiently close to and sufficiently far from the bulk isotropic--nematic--smectic-A triple point by varying the model coupling parameters. These results reconcile findings from previous theories and experiments.