Buckling morphology of glassy nematic films with staggered director field

Abstract

The photo-induced buckling of axially periodic glassy nematic films with alternating stripped director domains is explored by the Föppl-von Kármán plate theory along with a modified kinetics approach. The effects of domain widths on the critical light intensity as well as the buckling morphology are examined numerically. It is found that in most cases the buckled film forms regularly aligned dimples and protrusions, but shows large scale bending perpendicular to the periodic axis if the widths of the stripes are nearly the same. In addition, change in light intensity is shown to alter the wavenumber of the buckling pattern. These results are expected helpful to the design of shape-shifting structures with glassy nematic films.