Berlin 2005 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

DY: Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 34: Poster

DY 34.103: Poster

Monday, March 7, 2005, 15:30–18:00, Poster TU D

The planar-fingerprint transition in a thermo-reversible liquid crystalline gel — •Alberto de Lózar, Wolfgang Schöpf, Ingo Rehberg, Oscar Lafuente, and Günter Lattermann — Univerisität Bayreuth

A thermo-reversible (physical) gel consisting of a nematic liquid crystal mixed with a small quantity of a chiral organogelator is investigated in the planar configuration. The response of the system to an external electric field reveals multistability within a small hysteresis. The relaxation of the liquid crystal under this field is characterized by two different time scales: a fast one that is connected to the tilt of the director field, and a slow one that describes the reorientation of the chiral structure. In the first case, the relaxation is non-exponential and can be described by a Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts law with a stretching parameter of 0.5.