Model to describe light scattering by polymer film containing droplets with inhomogeneous anchoring of liquid crystal molecules at the polymer–droplet interface: asymmetry effect in the angular distribution of light

Abstract

A model to describe light scattering by polymer film containing of monolayer of liquid crystal droplets with inhomogeneous anchoring of liquid crystal molecules at the polymerdroplet interface is developed. It is based on the interference approximation of the wave scattering theory. The director field distribution in the droplet volume is determined by solving the free energy density minimization problem using the relaxation method. The spatial distribution of droplets in the layer is described by the hard disks model. The amplitude scattering matrices of individual droplets are found in the anomalous diffraction approximation. The algorithm for numerical analysis of the characteristics of light scattered in a polymer film containing droplets at homogeneous and inhomogeneous surface anchoring is described in terms of the partial filling factors of the monolayer film. Electrically controllable symmetry breaking effect of angular distribution of light scattered by films containing droplets with inhomogeneous anchoring at the polymer-droplet interface is described and experimentally confirmed.

Liquid crystal droplets under extreme confinement probed by a multiscale simulation approach

“…In addition, the smaller the droplets, the fuzzier the distinction between surface and bulk region within the droplets themselves. This is the challenge faced by the development of applications such as polymer-dispersed liquid crystals [11][12][13] as well as others, in which LC droplets are controlled by electric fields, and in sensors applications where LC droplets react to temperature and chemical stimuli. Reading of highly sensitive biosensors, for example, depends on the quantification of how LC droplets and nanodroplets respond to other chemicals [14][15][16][17].…”