Director Response of Liquid Crystals in Spatially Varying Magnetic Fields with Antagonistic Anchoring Conditions.

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, United States.

Published: December 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • In the presence of a magnetic field, liquid crystal directors can be distorted from their stable state, influenced by the combinations of liquid crystal elasticity and surface anchoring.
  • The research outlines a method to achieve spatially complex distortions by utilizing high-permeability ferromagnetic microstructures embedded in nematic liquid crystals, which create distinct magnetic field patterns.
  • The study includes simulations that illustrate how variations in magnetic field shape affect the liquid crystal director's orientation, enabling the design of customized microstructures for specific liquid crystal patterns.

Article Abstract

In the presence of a magnetic field, a liquid crystal (LC) director can be distorted from a ground state set by a combination of LC elasticity and surface anchoring at any relevant interfaces. Uniform magnetic fields are often used to produce simple LC distortions on demand, but producing more spatially complex distortions is practically challenging. We develop a strategy for the spatially resolved control of the LC director by leveraging field patterns induced by ferromagnetic materials. Patterned magnetic fields are generated from high-permeability ferromagnetic microstructures embedded into nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) to manipulate the LC director's orientation. Each ferromagnetic microstructure produces a unique spatially varying magnetic field. In turn, tuning magnetic field strength in competition with NLC elasticity can pattern a range of spatially complex director configurations. Simulations relate the spatial variation induced in a magnetic field by a ferromagnetic geometry and the resultant director. Our predictive models can inform the inverse design of ferromagnetic microstructures to generate bespoke director patterns. We also link changes in the magnetic field to the migration of elastically driven periodic extinctions in birefringence near the edges of ferromagnetic structures.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.4c17546DOI Listing

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