Pseudo-casimir structural force drives spinodal dewetting in nematic liquid crystals
We analyze theoretically the fluctuation-induced force in thin nematic films subject to competing surface interactions, and we find that the force is attractive at small distances and repulsive otherwise. The results provide a consistent interpretation of a recent study of spinodal dewetting of 5CB...
Saved in:
| Published in: | Physical review letters Vol. 84; no. 6; pp. 1228 - 1231 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
United States
07-02-2000
|
| Online Access: | Get full text |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | We analyze theoretically the fluctuation-induced force in thin nematic films subject to competing surface interactions, and we find that the force is attractive at small distances and repulsive otherwise. The results provide a consistent interpretation of a recent study of spinodal dewetting of 5CB on a silicon wafer [F. Vandenbrouck et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2693 (1999)], implying that this experiment can be regarded as the first observation of the pseudo-Casimir effect in liquid crystals. |
|---|---|
| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 0031-9007 1079-7114 |
| DOI: | 10.1103/physrevlett.84.1228 |