Pseudo-Casimir Structural Force Drives Spinodal Dewetting in Nematic Liquid Crystals
- 7 February 2000
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 84 (6) , 1228-1231
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.84.1228
Abstract
We analyze theoretically the fluctuation-induced force in thin nematic films subject to competing surface interactions, and we find that the force is attractive at small distances and repulsive otherwise. The results provide a consistent interpretation of a recent study of spinodal dewetting of 5CB on a silicon wafer [F. Vandenbrouck et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2693 (1999)], implying that this experiment can be regarded as the first observation of the pseudo-Casimir effect in liquid crystals.Keywords
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