Quasi-long-range order in nematics confined in random porous media

Abstract

We study the effect of random porous matrices on the ordering in nematic liquid crystals. The randomness destroys orientational lang-range order and drives the liquid crystal into a glass state. We predict two glass phases one of which possesses quasi-long-range order. In this state the correlation length is infinite and the correlation function of the order parameter obeys a power dependence on the distance. The small-angle light-scattering amplitude diverges but slower than in the bulk nematic. In the uniaxially strained porous matrices two new phases emerge. One type of strain induces an anisotropic quasi-long-range-ordered state while the other stabilizes nematic long-range order.

4 pages, Revtex

References in corpus (2)

• Smectic Liquid Crystals in Random Environments
• Quasi-long-range order in the random anisotropy Heisenberg model: functional renormalization group in 4-εdimensions

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