Anchoring and orientational wetting transitions of confined liquid crystals

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Abstract
Deuterium magnetic resonance of cylindrically confined liquid crystals reveal a structural transition driven by a homeotropic-to-planar anchoring transition in the nematic phase and an orientational wetting (quasicomplete-to-partial) transition in the isotropic phase as the molecular length of the surface coupling agent is decreased. A simple phenomenological description reveals a weak positive surface order parameter in the homeotropic case and a negative one in the planar case. The absence of a symmetry breaking transition in the planar case is attributed to weak interfacial coupling.