THE EFFECTS OF CURVATURE ON NEMATIC LIQUID-CRYSTALS CONFINED IN A CYLINDRICAL CAVITY

It has been shown that the surface free energy for a smooth interface between a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) and an isotropic medium contain s four different contributions: a standard anchoring term, an elastic term and two curvature terms, In this paper we show that the four coef ficients that enter the surface free energy can be obtained from suita ble experiments performed on NLCs confined in a cylindrical cavity. It is also shown that the new surface free energy provides a satisfactor y explanation for an apparent discrepancy of some previous experimenta l results. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.