Auteur(s): Nespoulous Mathieu, Blanc C., Nobili M.
(Article) Publié: Physical Review Letters, vol. 104 p.097801 (2010)
Ref HAL: hal-00503929_v1
PMID 20367011
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.097801
WoS: 000275252500041
Exporter : BibTex | endNote
14 Citations
Résumé:
By means of direct imaging, we map the surface heterogeneities of the nematic director orientation on a SiOx anchoring layer. The spatial correlations of surface director orientations are well fitted with a compressed exponential with exponent of 1.5 and typical correlation length of few microns. To discuss these results a formal analogy is established between the equation governing the nematic surface torques and the Langevin equation. Based on this analogy we prove that the disorder is spatially correlated orientational quenched disorder. The measured correlation length is discussed in terms of substrate morphology and molecular adsorption.