Odd-Even Effects of the Anchoring Strength for Nematic Liquid Crystal on Rubbed Polyimide LB Surfaces

러빙처리된 폴리이미드막 LB막에 있어서 네마틱액정의 결합강도의 홀수짝수 효과

The odd-even effect of the alkyl chain length of rubbed polyimide Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) surfaces on the extrapolation length of 5CB has been successfully evaluated for the first time by measuring polar anchoring strength. The extrapolation length of 5CB for rubbed PI-LB surfaces with even-numbers is small compared with odd-numbers for alkyl chain lengths of greater than 7 carbons. The extrapolation length of 5CB on rubbed PI-LB surfaces with odd-numbers increases gradually as the temperature increases but tends to diverge near the clearing temperature (Tc=$35.3^{\circ}C$). The extrapolation length diverges because of rapidly decreasing surface order near $T_c$. We suggest that the polar anchoring strength on rubbed PI-LB surfaces with even-number is strong because of relatively high surface ordering caused by more crystalline surfaces. Finally, we conclude that the odd-even effects of the polar anchoring strength in NLCs are strongly related to the character of the polymer and observed clearly for long alkyl chain lengths.