Electric-field-induced molecular reorientation of a magnetically biased ferronematic liquid-crystal film

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Electric-field-induced molecular reorientation is studied in the magnetically biased ferronematic liquid-crystal (FNLC) film. A theory derived from the free energy of the system is given. To investigate the field-induced distortion, we have measured the optical birefringence which depends on the integration of the director orientation. In our experiment, the electric-field-induced molecular reorientation of FNLC biased at different magnetic fields has been obtained. The electric-field-induced molecular reorientation of FNLC films biased at fixing magnetic field with different thicknesses has also been measured. Furthermore, hysteresis phenomena have been observed. At higher magnetic field intensities, it seems that the magnetic particles flocculate into large clumps.