Proposal of mechanics of liquid crystals and development of liquid crystalline microactuators

Abstract

We propose a research field "mechanics of liquid crystals," in which liquid crystals are studied from a mechanical viewpoint. The unsteady behaviors of a liquid crystal between parallel plates under an electric field are investigated. The imposition of the electric field on the liquid crystal induces flows, whose profile and magnitude strongly depend on the twist angle of the director at the plates. A visualization experiment confirms the generation of flows. The mechanism of such generation can be explained by considering that the rotation of molecules generated by the imposition of the electric field induces a local velocity gradient. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.