Wetting Transition and Divergence of the Extrapolation Length near the Nematic-Isotropic Transition
- 20 July 1998
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 81 (3) , 610-613
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.81.610
Abstract
We report an investigation of the wetting behavior of 5CB drops on silicon wafers. Nematic drops exhibit a characteristic mesoscopic thickness that diverges as the nematic-isotropic transition is approached. This divergence may be associated with the vanishing of the anchoring strength, or equivalently, to a wetting transition occurring near the nematic-isotropic transition. Pretransitional effects due to the structuring of the drop close to the solid surface can be observed in the isotropic phase.Keywords
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