How to align a nematic glassy phase – Different conditions – Different results

Influence of different factors on nematic alignment and relaxation dynamics in supercooled mixture of liquid crystals E7 was investigated by means of dielectric and rheo-dielectric spectroscopy. Results show that elevated pressure or application of strong oscillatory shear aligned the nematic director parallel to the electrodes. On the other hand, if after the shear treatment a static electric field is applied an alignment of the nematic director perpendicular to the electrodes is even better than in the sample quenched and aligned by bias field without the shear treatment.