Influence of the flexoelectric effect on director alignment of nematic liquid crystals confined to the planar anchoring cylinder

ABSTRACT

The influence of the flexoelectric effect on the director distribution of nematic liquid crystals confined to a cylinder with planar anchoring under an applied electric field is investigated by the continuum theory and the difference iterative method. Numerical analyses of the influence of the dielectric effect, flexoelectric effect and the coupling of these two effects on director alignment of nematic liquid crystal in a cylinder are obtained on the basis of the equilibrium equations using continuum theory. The analyses revealed that the change of director of nematic liquid crystals was caused by flexoelectric effect and dielectric effect in different directions. It provides a good theoretical basis for controlling the orientation of liquid crystal director in a cylinder and measuring of flexoelectric coefficient of liquid crystal materials.

Graphical abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Flexoelectric effect
• dielectric effect
• cylinder
• director distribution
• planar anchoring

Acknowledgments

We sincerely extend our thanks to the financial support of National Natural Science Foundation of China [11374087], and the Key Subject Construction Project of Hebei Province University, China.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [11374087].