Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.438, 1705-1714, 2005
Director configurations within nematic droplets doped by lecithin
The series of polymer dispersed liquid crystals films based on polyvinylbutyralnematic 5CB composition doped by lecithin have been prepared. The characteristic textures of nematic droplets with various concentration of surfactant have been investigated and their orientational structures have been identified. It allowed to reveal the novel director configurations which are transient between bipolar and radial structures. Using the computational method to minimize elastic energy of director field distortions in the droplet bulk and applying the inhomogeneous boundary conditions, the orientational structures have been obtained and these A I are analogous to the observed ones.