Surface fields and the splay-bend elastic constant
- 1 May 1996
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review E
- Vol. 53 (5) , R4299-R4301
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.53.r4299
Abstract
We show that a surface field localized near the bounding surface over a mesoscopic length gives rise to a subsurface discontinuity. Our result is compared with a recent elastic theory in which the subsurface distortion is due to the splay-bend elastic constant. By means of our model, the interpretation of continuous surface variations of the average nematic orientation is given and compared with the elastic model.Keywords
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