We have observed capillary condensation in nanometer-thin films of nematic liquid crystals using force spectroscopy. The liquid crystal was confined to a submicron gap between a flat substrate and a microsphere, attached to the cantilever of an atomic force microscope. A long-ranged and strongly attractive force due to capillary condensation of a nematic phase was observed at temperatures close to the bulk isotropic-nematic phase transition. The critical point, terminating the first-order confined isotropic-nematic transition line, was determined for the first time.

We report on the atomic force microscope observation of an electrostatic force between glass surfaces immersed in cyanobiphenil liquid crystals. The measured force is repulsive and decays exponentially with increasing surface separation. A mean field description of the electrostatic interaction in liquids has been used to determine the Debye screening length, the concentration of dissolved ions, and the surface electric potential. The effect of the observed interfacial electric field on the liquid crystal orientation at the surface has been discussed. It has been found that the coupling between the liquid crystal order and the surface electric field does not contribute considerably to the surface orienting action.

Using a temperature controlled atomic force microscope, we have measured the temperature dependence of the force between a flat silanated glass surface and a silanated glass microsphere, immersed in the isotropic phase of the nematic liquid crystal 5CB (4'-n-pentyl 4-cyanobiphenyl). At separations of several nanometers, we observed a weak, short range attractive force of the order of 100 pN, which was increased by decreasing the temperature. The temperature dependence of the amplitude and the range of this attractive force can be described by a combination of van der Waals and a mean-field prenematic force due to the surface-induced nematic order. This is supported by ellipsometric study and allows for the determination of the surface coupling energy of 5CB on a silanated glass surface.

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