Rotation of a liquid crystal by the Casimir torque

Somers, David A. T.; Munday, Jeremy N.

doi:10.1103/physreva.91.032520

Cited by 30 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…1 mm 2 , such a level of torque intensity appears well within the range of detectability of the torsion balance setup we present below. This comparably high value should be contrasted with values of Casimir torques induced between anisotropic dielectric plates [28][29][30][31][32] which are about 3 orders of magnitude smaller when compared at the same distance. We have also performed calculations for larger corrugations height up to a = 2 µm merely leading, somewhat counter-intuitively, to a marginal increase in the Casimir torque.…”

Section: Genetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Casimir torque between nanostructured plates

Guérout¹,

Genet²,

Lambrecht³

et al. 2015

EPL

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We investigate in detail the Casimir torque induced by quantum vacuum fluctuations between two nanostructured plates. Our calculations are based on the scattering approach and take into account the coupling between different modes induced by the shape of the surface which are neglected in any sort of proximity approximation or effective medium approach. We then present an experimental setup aiming at measuring this torque.

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Section: Genetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Casimir torque between nanostructured plates

Guérout¹,

Genet²,

Lambrecht³

et al. 2015

EPL

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“…In a realistic system the Casimir torque will compete with other elastic-type forces that determine the equilibrium position of the 'dipoles'. Inspired by the recent study of [18], which investigates the Casimir torque when the optical axes of the relevant materials are parallel to the interface, here we suggest that the singleinterface Casimir torque may have sizeable effects in liquid crystal systems.…”

Section: Nematic Fluidsmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…The configuration of figure 9 depicts an interface between a nematic liquid crystal (e.g., 5CB) [18,36] and a high-index isotropic (or anisotropic) material (e.g., TiO 2 ) [37,38]. A liquid crystal is formed by elongated molecules with an anisotropic shape.…”

Section: Nematic Fluidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note that the static relative permittivity of TiO 2 is extremely large on the order of 85 [37]. The material response of 5CB [18,36] and of TiO 2 [37,38] was modeled using experimental data available from the literature. For simplicity the intrinsic anisotropy of TiO 2 was neglected.…”

Section: Nematic Fluidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Casimir torque in this kind of systems was further investigated in [14][15][16][17][18]. In particular, numerical calculations of the torque were provided in [14][15][16]18], and possible experiments to measure the Casimir torque were proposed in [14,[16][17][18].With the emergence of metamaterials and their intriguing electromagnetic properties, the study of the Casimir-Lifshitz interactions has also been extended to systems with complex structural nanoscopic unities [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. In particular, in a recent work [28] we studied the Casimir interaction torque in nanowire materials and demonstrated that it is distinctively different from the torques studied hitherto in other systems (e.g., birefringent parallel plates [14]).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Single-interface Casimir torque

Morgado

Silveirinha

2016

New J. Phys.

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A different type of Casimir-type interaction is theoretically predicted: a single-interface torque at a junction of an anisotropic material and a vacuum or another material system. The torque acts to reorient the polarizable microscopic units of the involved materials near the interface, and thus to change the internal structure of the materials. The single-interface torque depends on the zero-point energy of the interface localized and extended modes. Our theory demonstrates that the singleinterface torque is essential to understand the Casimir physics of material systems with anisotropic elements and may influence the orientation of the director of nematic liquid crystals. IntroductionCasimir-Lifshitz interactions [1-3] are the most paradigmatic example of quantum effects on the macro scale, and result from the confinement of the quantum-mechanical zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. Until recently, the study of quantum fluctuation-induced electromagnetic interactions was only of pure theoretical interest. Nevertheless, with the rapid development of micro-and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS) and its great impact in different areas [4,5], the research of Casimir-Lifshitz interactions has become of great practical importance as well. If, on one hand, Casimir interaction phenomena may lead to potentially undesired effects such as 'stiction' [6,7], on the other hand, they may open new and exciting possibilities in the field of micro and nanomechanics [4,[8][9][10][11].The study of Casimir-Lifshitz phenomena was pioneered by Casimir for more than 60 years ago [1]. In his seminal work, Casimir showed that as a result of the electromagnetic field quantum fluctuations, two parallel perfectly conducting plates standing in a vacuum may experience an attractive force pushing the plates toward each other. Following Casimir's prediction, Lifshitz, Dzyaloshinskii, and Pitaevskii extended the theory to the more general case of realistic isotropic dielectric plates, including non-ideal metals [2, 3]. Some years later, this theory was further generalized to anisotropic dielectric plates [12,13]. Interestingly, it was shown that the anisotropy may lead to the emergence of qualitatively different phenomena. It was demonstrated that a pair of parallel anisotropic uniaxial plates-with in-plane optical anisotropy and misaligned optical axes-separated by an isotropic dielectric, may experience a mechanical torque, designated as Casimir torque, that spontaneously forces the rotation of the plates towards the minimum energy position. The Casimir torque in this kind of systems was further investigated in [14][15][16][17][18]. In particular, numerical calculations of the torque were provided in [14][15][16]18], and possible experiments to measure the Casimir torque were proposed in [14,[16][17][18].With the emergence of metamaterials and their intriguing electromagnetic properties, the study of the Casimir-Lifshitz interactions has also been extended to systems with complex structural nanoscopic unities [1...

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29‐3: Highly Versatile and Stable Photoalignment Process for AMLCDs

McGinty

Wang

Finnemeyer

et al. 2018

Symp Digest of Tech Papers

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A simple process for a reactive mesogen (RM) alignment layer is demonstrated with potential wide spread application in liquid crystal devices. A low concentration (0.3% wt) of RM dissolved in a liquid crystal is aligned by an azodye layer.After polymerization of the RM, the azodye is "bleached" to remove its visible absorption. The result is a versatile, low cost, stable alignment layer that is practical for AMLCDs.

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Rotation of a liquid crystal by the Casimir torque

Cited by 30 publications

References 39 publications

Casimir torque between nanostructured plates

Casimir torque between nanostructured plates

Single-interface Casimir torque

29‐3: Highly Versatile and Stable Photoalignment Process for AMLCDs

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