Numerical study of surface-induced reorientation and smectic layering in a nematic liquid crystal

摘要

Surface-induced profiles of both nematic and smectic order parameters in anematic liquid crystal, ranging from an orienting substrate to "infinity", wereevaluated numerically on base of an extended Landau theory. In order to obtaina smooth behavior of the solutions at "infinity" a boundary energy functionalwas derived by linearizing the Landau energy around its equilibrium solutions.We find that the intrinsic wave number of the smectic structure, which playsthe role of a coupling between nematic and smectic order, strongly influencesthe director reorientation. Whereas the smectic order is rapidly decaying whenmoving away from the surface, the uniaxial nematic order parameter shows anoscillatory behavior close to the substrate, accompanied by a non-zero localbiaxiality.