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Register a new userQualitative chirality effects on the Casimir-Lifshitz torque with liquid crystals
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We model a cholesteric liquid crystal as a planar uniaxial multilayer system, where the orientation of each layer differs slightly from that of the adjacent one. This allows us to analytically simplify the otherwise acutely complicated calculation of the Casimir-Lifshitz torque. Numerical results differ appreciably from the case of nematic liquid crystals, which can be treated like bloc birefringent media. In particular, we find that the torque deviates considerably from its usual sinusoidal behavior as a function of the misalignment angle. In the case of a birefringent crystal faced with a cholesteric liquid one, the Casimir-Lifshitz torque decreases more slowly as a function of distance than in the nematic case. In the case of two cholesteric liquid crystals, either in the homochiral or in the heterochiral configuration, the angular dependence changes qualitatively as a function of distance. In all considered cases, finite pitch length effects are most pronounced at distances of about 10 nm.
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More than forty years ago, Barash published a calculation of the full retarded Casimir-Lifshitz torque for planar birefringent media with arbitrary degrees of anisotropy. An independent theoretical confirmation has been lacking since. We report a systematic and transparent derivation of the torque between two media with both electric and magnetic birefringence. Our approach, based on an eigenmode decomposition of Maxwells equations, generalizes Barashs result for electrically birefringent materials, and can be generalized to a wide range of anisotropic materials and finite thickness effects.
We show that the mechanical effect of light on the orientational ordering of the crystalline axis of a mesophase can be used to control the dynamics of the optical response of liquid crystal infiltrated photonic structures. The demonstration is made using a one-dimensional periodic structure whose periodicity is broken by the presence of a nematic liquid crystal defect layer. In this study we report on output light polarization and/or intensity dynamics that depends on the initial molecular ordering and incident light wavelength and intensity.
The physics of nematic liquid crystals has been subject of intensive research since the late 19th century. However, because of the limitations of chemistry the focus has been centered around uni- and biaxial nematics associated with constituents bearing a $D_{infty h}$ or $D_{2h}$ symmetry respectively. In view of general symmetries, however, these are singularly special since nematic order can in principle involve any point group symmetry. Given the progress in tailoring nano particles with particular shapes and interactions, this vast family of generalized nematics might become accessible in the laboratory. Little is known since the order parameter theories associated with the highly symmetric point groups are remarkably complicated, involving tensor order parameters of high rank. Here we show that the generic features of the statistical physics of such systems can be studied in a highly flexible and efficient fashion using a mathematical tool borrowed from high energy physics: discrete non-Abelian gauge theory. Explicitly, we construct a family of lattice gauge models encapsulating nematic ordering of general three dimensional point group symmetries. We find that the most symmetrical generalized nematics are subjected to thermal fluctuations of unprecedented severity. As a result, novel forms of fluctuation phenomena become possible. In particular, we demonstrate that a vestigial phase carrying no more than chiral order becomes ubiquitous departing from high point group symmetry chiral building blocks, such as $I$, $O$ and $T$ symmetric matter.
We analyze the transverse intersubstrate pseudo-Casimir force, arising as a result of thermal fluctuations of the liquid crystalline layers of a smectic-A film confined between two planar substrates in a bookshelf geometry, in which the equidistant smectic layers are placed perpendicular to the bounding surfaces. We discuss the variation of the interaction force as a function of the intersubstrate separation in the presence of surface anchoring to the substrates, showing that the force induced by confined fluctuations is attractive and depends on the penetration length as well as the layer spacing. The strongest effect occurs for tightly confined fluctuations, in which the surface anchoring energy is set to infinity, where the force per area scales linearly with the thermal energy and inversely with the fourth power of the intersubstrate separation. By reducing the strength of the surface anchoring energy, the force first becomes weaker in magnitude but then increases in magnitude as the surface anchoring strength is further reduced down to zero, in which case the force tends to that obtained in the limit of strong anchoring.
The multidimensional energy surface of a cholesteric liquid crystal in a planar cell is investigated as a function of spherical coordinates determining the director orientation. Minima on the energy surface correspond to the stable states with particular director distribution. External electric and magnetic fields deform the energy surface and positions of minima. It can lead to the transitions between states, known as the Fr{e}edericksz effect. Transitions can be continuous or discontinuous depending on parameters of the liquid crystal which determine an energy surface. In a case of discontinuous transition when a barrier between stable states is comparable with the thermal energy, the activation transitions may occur and it leads to the modification of characteristics of the Fr{e}edericksz effect with temperature without explicit temperature dependencies of liquid crystal parameters. Minimum energy path between stable states on the energy surface for the Fr{e}edericksz transition is found using geodesic nudged elastic band method. Knowledge of this path, which has maximal statistical weight among all other paths, gives the information about a barrier between stable states and configuration of director orientation during the transition. It also allows one to estimate the stability of states with respect to the thermal fluctuations and their lifetime when the system is close to the Fr{e}edericksz transition.
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