Azimuthal Anchoring Strength in Photopatterned Alignment of a Nematic
Spatially-varying director fields have become an important part of research and development in liquid crystals. Characterization of the anchoring strength associated with a spatially-varying director is difficult, since the methods developed for a uniform alignment are seldom applicable. Here we characterize the strength of azimuthal surface anchoring produced by the photoalignment technique based on plasmonic metamsaks. The measurements used photopatterned arrays of topological point defects of strength +1 and −1 in thin layers of a nematic liquid crystal. The integer-strength defects split into pairs of half-integer defects with lower elastic energy. The separation distance between the split pair is limited by the azimuthal surface anchoring, which allows one to determine the strength of the latter. The strength of the azimuthal anchoring is proportional to the UV exposure time during the photoalignment of the azobenzene layer.
- Research Organization:
- Kent State Univ., Kent, OH (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0019105
- OSTI ID:
- 1787910
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1852816
OSTI ID: 1897131
- Journal Information:
- Crystals, Journal Name: Crystals Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 11; ISSN CRYSBC; ISSN 2073-4352
- Publisher:
- MDPI AGCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- Germany
- Language:
- English