Electrically controlled surface bistability in nematic liquid crystals

摘要

The use of obliquely SiO evaporated glass plates at grazing incidence and controlled thickness gives a surface twofold degenerate oblique orientation for the nematic liquidhyphen;crystal MBBA (phyphen;methoxyhyphen;benzylidinehyphen;phyphen;nhyphen;butylhyphen;aniline). Using a horizontal electric field and the linear flexoelectric coupling, one can switch the surface state from the first orientation to the other one, above a threshold value for the electric field. This represents the first example of an electrically controlled surface bistability in nematic liquid crystals.