A mathematical study of a bistable nematic liquid crystal device

• Author(s): Costa, Fernando Pestana da ; Grinfeld, Michael ; Mottram, Nigel J. ; Pinto, João Teixeira
• Date: 2007
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/1488
• Origin: Repositório Aberto da Universidade Aberta
• Subject(s): Nematic liquid crystals; Bistable device; Switching; Parabolic PDEs; Dynamic boundary conditions
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Electronic version of an article published as Mathematical Models and Methods in Applied Sciences Vol. 17, No. 12 (2007). p. 2009–2034. Article DOI No: 10.1142/S0218202507002546. Copyright World Scientific Publishing Company http://www.worldscientific.com/ We consider a model of a bistable nematic liquid crystal device based on the Ericksen– Leslie theory. The resulting mathematical object is a parabolic PDE with nonlinear dynamic boundary conditions. We analyze well-posedness of the problem and global existence of solutions using the theory developed by Amann. Furthermore, using phaseplane methods, we give an exhaustive description of the steady state solutions and hence of the switching capabilities of the device.