N. Cuvillier et al., Shear-induced optical anisotropy in a Langmuir monolayer: A Brewster anglereflectivity study, J CHEM PHYS, 111(15), 1999, pp. 6982-6990
Shearing an initially isotropic Langmuir film by a rotating disk can lead t
o an optical anisotropy at the interface. This induced anisotropy is relate
d to a local in-plane molecular alignment due to the shearing and was exper
imentally observed using a monolayer based on a liquid crystal polyacrylate
. The variation of the anisotropy versus shearing was modelized and measure
d by Brewster angle microscopy. The results reveal that the optical propert
y of such a monolayer is similar to that of a two dimensional nematic liqui
d crystal. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(99)71639-9].