2008/12/03 by Günter K. Auernhammer, Jinyu Zhao, Auernhammer, Günter K. +5
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0812.0745
minor changes
arxiv created 2009/03/26 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
Nematic drops suspended in the isotropic phase of the same substance were subjected to alternating electrical fields of varying frequency. The system was carefully kept in the isotropic-nematic coexistance region, which was broadened due to small amounts of non-mesogenic additives. Whereas the droplets remained spherical at low (order of 10 Hz) and high frequencies (in the kHz range), at intermediate frequencies, we observed a marked flattening of the droplet in the plane perpendicular to the applied field. The deformation of the liquid crystal (LC) droplets occurred both in substances with positive and negative dielectric anisotropy. The experimental data can be quantitatively modelled with a combination of the leaky dielectric model and screening of the applied electric field due to the finite conductivity.