Azimuthal anchoring energy of a nematic liquid crystal at a grooved interface

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Abstract
The azimuthal anchoring of a nematic liquid crystal at a grooved interface is usually explained in terms of the well-known Berreman model. Recent experimental results, however, suggest that the original Berreman model must be modified in order to account for the presence of a reduced (or increased) order at the surface. A further important parameter, assumed to be infinite in the Berreman model, is the polar anchoring energy. In this paper we investigate how finite polar anchoring and the reduced (or increased) surface order affect the azimuthal anchoring, and we propose a more general expression for the azimuthal anchoring energy at a grooved interface. The main result of this paper is that the finite polar anchoring can lead to an important contribution to the azimuthal anchoring, while the effect of surface order can be usually neglected except in the case where the isotropic phase wets the substrate.