Ag. Kozachenko, Surface-modified hysteresis of short pitch cholesteric-nematic mixtures under externally applied fields, MOLEC CRYST, 361, 2001, pp. 149-155
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.