Showing papers by "Samo Kralj published in 1997"
TL;DR: In this paper, a method was developed to determine the surface anchoring strength W and the tilt θt of the nematic director from the normal to a curved nematic-air interface.
Abstract: A new method has been developed to determine the surface anchoring strength W and the tilt θt of the nematic director from the normal to a curved nematic–air interface. This method is based on the comparison of interference textures obtained by polarization microscopy experiments to numerical simulations of nematic liquid crystals within partially filled cylindrical tubes enforcing homeotropic anchoring. For the nematic liquid-crystal mixture ZLI 2860, we obtain θt=7°±1°, W=(1.5±0.5)×10−6 J/m2 at the nematic–tube and W>10−5 J/m2 at the nematic–air interface.
15 citations
TL;DR: A deuteron NMR study of a pentylcyanobiphenil (5CB) liquid crystal confined in controlled pore glass (CPG) matrices of different pore diameters 2R between 7 nm and 400 nm has been performed.
Abstract: A deuteron NMR study of a pentylcyanobiphenil (5CB) liquid crystal confined in controlled pore glass (CPG) matrices of different pore diameters 2R between 7 nm and 400 nm has been performed. The paranematic-nematic (P-N) phase transition seems to be gradual in pores with 2R ≤ 24 nm and discontinuous in larger pores. Possible reasons for the observed temperature shift Δ and qualitative change of the phase transition are analyzed using a simple phenomenological approach. The theoretical analysis suggests that both surface interaction and elastic distortions significantly influence the ΔT= ΔT(R) dependence obtained in CPG samples.
5 citations