2002/09/26 by Alexei D. Kiselev, A. D. Kiselev, Kiselev, A. D.
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Computer Science · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Nonlinear Dynamics and Pattern Formation #Plant Reproductive Biology #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0209625
15 pages, 8 figures
arxiv created 2002/09/26 · openalex publication_date 2002/09/26 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We consider director configurations of cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) cells with two plane confining substrates. Exact solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equations for out-of-plane orientations of the easy axes that correspond to inhomogeneous conical structures of CLC director are derived. We study dependence of the CLC twist wavenumber on the free twisting number assuming that anchoring energies at the substrates are either equal or different. In both cases this dependence is found to be generally discontinuous with hysteresis loops and bistability effects involved. For CLC cells with identical substrates and planar anchoring conditions the jump-like behaviour only disappears in the weak anchoring limit. Contrastingly, when the anchoring strengths are different, there is the finite value of anchoring below which the dependence becomes continuous. Another effect is the appearance of the gap between the adjacent twist wavenumber intervals representing locally stable director configurations. We calculate the critical value of anchoring asymmetry and present the results of numerical calculations.