ON AN ORIENTATION TRANSITION IN NEMATIC LIQUID CRYSTALS INDUCED BY THE THICKNESS OF THE SAMPLE

An orientation transition observed in nematic liquid crystal samples, induced by the thickness, is interpreted in a new way. By supposing that the nematic liquid crystal contains chiral impurities, it is shown that the homeotropic orientation is stable only for thicknesses smaller than a critical one, and is dependent on the concentration of the chiral molecules. At the critical thickness, the transition from the homeotropic orientation to the distorted one is characterized by a tilt angle proportional to the square root of the actual thickness minus the critical one. This trend is typical of second order phase transitions. The agreement between the theory and the experimental data is fairly good over a large range of thickness of the sample.