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Original Articles

Orientational Ordering of Bipolar Nematic Droplets in a Stretched PVA Matrix

Pages 105-122 | Received 26 May 1995, Accepted 22 Sep 1995, Published online: 04 Oct 2006

References

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  • Crawford , G. P. , Polak , R. D. , Scharkovski , A. , Chien , L.-C. , Doane , J. W. and Zumer , S. 1994 . J. Appl. Phys. , 75 : 1968
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  • For the affine transformation of the matrix dimensions, a radius vector terminating at the point x, y, z on the surface of the undeformed droplet cavity terminates at pxx, pyy, pzz on the surfacee of the deformed ellipsoid, where px = p, py = p−A, and pz = p−B are the ratios of the stretched and unstretched dimensions of the sample, respectively, in the Cartesian coordinate system X YZ with the X axis parallel to the stretch direction and the Z axis normal to the film plane. A and B are constants, satisfying the condition for a constant film volume A + B = 1 (i. e., pxpypz = 1) and, for our samples, having the values A ≈ 0.55, B ≈ 0.45. Considering such a deformation, it is easy to obtain the Equation (5) and show that l = p1+A
  • We have not related the observed peculiarites to the droplet sizes (i. e., the droplet size distribution function was not taken into account) since the number of droplets per histogram bin (in average about of 20) was too small to reliably detect such a correlation. To solve the problem, each bin should contain no less than hundreds of droplets that requires the automated sample inspection instead of the mannual statistical treatment used in this work.
  • A unique rest orientation for the bipolar nematic droplet in an unstretched PVA film has been originally found by Drzaic7 who has observed that the droplet returns to its initial state after the external electric field is removed and also after heating the nematic to the isotropic state and then cooling back to the nematic. The main driving force for this preferred orientation was ascribed to the droplet shape anisotropy: each droplet was postulated to have an irregular shape and therefore the droplet director prefers to orient along the greatest dimension of the droplet cavity where the elastic deformation energy is minimized. Although an alternative view that the rest configuration is defined by a preferred alignment direction imposed by the polymer wall was not ruled out, it was reckoned as a secondary in importance to the shape anisotropy of the droplet.10
  • Ushakov , S. N. 1960 . Poliviniloviy spirt i ego proizvodnye , Moscow-Leningrad : Izd. AN SSSR .
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  • Geary , J. M. , Good by , J. W. , Kmetz , A. R. and Patel , J. S. 1987 . J. Appl. Phys. , 62 : 4100
  • The crystallite sizes commonly range from a few tens of Angstroms up to several hundred Angstroms36 (usually 300 A); therefore, they are not seen with an optical microscope. In some cases, crystallites can be spontaneously organized into spherulites, which range in size from 1 μm to millimeters. However, microscope observations have shown that the PVA/glycerol matrix used in this study was devoid of spherulite structures.
  • Crawford , S. M. and Kolsky , H. 1951 . Proc. Royal Phys. Soc. , B64 : 119
  • Ji , Y. , Kelly , J. R. and West , J. L. 1993 . Liq. Cryst. , 14 : 1885

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