Surface-modified hysteresis of short pitch cholesteric-nematic mixtures under externally applied fields

Dynamic hysteresis behaviors are subjected to testing in short Ditch choles teric-nematic liquid crystal layers at the various boundary conditions. Mod ification of hysteresis properties near the field induced cholesteric-nemat ic transition was observed for the differently treated boundary layers and inspected by direct optical methods. It was found the interaction energy be tween liquid crystal (LC) and boundary layers plays rather essential role i n nucleation process than director configuration at the interface and if th is interaction energy is essential for tangential constrains, the nucleatio n occurs mainly at the surface interface and then permeate into the bulk gr adually. The experimental results show an influence of surface factor even for a big ratio d/P-o.