Pattern formation in electrohydrodynamic convection of a nematic liquid crystal

The first part of this dissertation is a study of the selection mechanism for the dendritic growth pattern of electrohydrodynamic convection (EHC) in a nematic liquid crystal (NLC). The cell gap d, the magnetic field H, and the voltage V are systematically varied. The transition from the non-convective state to the convective state is first order-like, although in this case it occurs in a nonequilibrium one-phase system.;In the layer plane, the two-fold dendritic pattern grows about the only anisotropy direction, perpendicular to the homogeneous director alignment. While for crystalline dendrites the tip radius of curvature rho and the growth speed v are sharply selected, these dendrites show partial selection. At fixed d, H, and V, rho or v for different dendrites varies each within a band. There is no systematic dependence of rho on V. Thus, these dendrites represent an entirely new selection problem for pattern formation. The non-convective state is anisotropic in the plane of the pattern within a (magnetic coherence) length xim of each substrate. The degree of anisotropy decays with xim/d and the selection becomes less sharp. In contrast to sharply interfaced solidification patterns, these dendrites are outlined by a diffuse boundary, which width w ∼ 2xim. While anisotropic surface tension stabilizes crystalline growth, the magnetic field stabilizes this dendritic growth.;Finding where and what scale convection first starts is important for understanding pattern selection in EHC. In the second part of this dissertation, fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy (FCPM) is employed to study normal dielectric rolls (NDRs) in a NLC. While polarizing microscopy gives a two-dimensional information of the integrated three-dimensional (3D) pattern of optical birefringence, FCPM can uniquely map 3D orientational patterns in LC. FCPM visualizes the intensity of polarized fluorescence light emitted by the dye molecules aligned by the LC molecules. The fluorescence signal peak occurs when the transition dipole of the dye molecules is parallel to the polarization of the input light. The nematic director structure in NDRs is scanned in both layer plane and transverse plane. Strong anchoring makes director oscillations difficult, and a system of convective rolls is formed at each electrode. In the middle region, the director oscillates with the high AC frequency. Breakdown of bulk properties is found for ratios roll width to roll depth to cell gap w/h/d about 1:5:15.