Continued Kinetic Study of the Cholesteric-Nematic Transition in a Liquid Crystal Film

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Abstract
Liquid crystals react to electric fields in strange, exciting ways. For example, when the field is sufficiently intense, a helicoidal cholesteric system transforms into a linear nematic form(1) As a result of previous experimental and theoretical work, steady state phenomenological aspects of the transformation and its dependence on material parameters are now well understood. (2,3 A study was initiated to extend observations further by considering kinetic aspects of the transition; that is, the transient behavior provoked by application of voltage as the material transforms to the nematic state, the transformation transient, and the behavior observeb when the field is removed and the sample resumes its cholesteric form, the relaxation transient.(4,5)