REORIENTATION DYNAMICS OF LIQUID CRYSTAL-FILLED POROUS POLYMER MEMBRANES

When low-molecular weight liquid crystals are confined to small cylind rical volumes of porous polymer membranes, the elastic deformation ene rgy and surface boundary effects play an increasing role as the surfac e-to-volume ratio is increased. For such materials confined to micron- sized volumes the free energy associated with the surface competes wit h the elastic deformation part of the free energy to determine the mol ecular organization or director configuration within the volume. An ad ditional contribution to the free energy occurs when external fields a re applied to such a system.