[Legacy Report] Electro -convective Patterns in Liquid Crystal

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Electrohydrodynamic convection (EHC) in nematic liquid crystals is a crucial model system for the study of spontaneous, non-equilibrium pattern formation in anisotropic systems. To characterize the EHC patterns, I have utilized a sample: 4-ethyl-2-fluoro-4’-[2-(trans-4-n-pentylcyclohexyl)-ethyl]-biphenyl (I52) having negative dielectric anisotropy, filled in standard planar cell geometry.



When electric field is applied, over certain range of the conductivity, the initial transition (supercritical Hopf bifurcation) leads to counter-propagating zig and zag rolls. The patterns were analyzed by two-wave and four-wave demodulation technique. Alternating waves and spatiotemporal chaos states are confirmed for different sets of parameters. Localized states called ‘worms’ are in existence at higher frequencies in the conduction regime.

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