Electrically Driven Torsional Distortions in Twisted Nematic Volumes

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to describe the physical mechanism responsible for the appearances of both traveling and non-traveling distortions in a twisted microsized nematic volume under the effect of a large electric field. Both experimental and theoretical works devoted to the excitation of structured periodic domains in initially homogeneously aligned liquid crystal systems under the effects of strong crossed electric and magnetic fields were analyzed. Electrically driven distortions in the microfluidic nematic capillary in the presence of a temperature gradient in it, based on the number of numerical results, were analyzed. We also focus on the description and explanation of the novel mechanism of excitation of the kink- and π-like distortion waves of the director field n^ in a cylindrical nematic micro-volume under the effect of voltage U and temperature gradient ∇T, set up between the cooler inner and hotter outer cylinders. Electrically driven torsional distortions in twisted nematic micro-volumes in the form of the kink-like running front based on the classical Ericksen–Leslie approach were considered.