ИСТИНА

The formation of heterogeneous nematic and smectic liquid crystals in the general case of an arbitrary geometry is investigated in the framework of molecular-statistical approach. The importance of theoretical consideration of the distorted smectic and nematic substances is well understood from the appearance of new LC phases [1–2] in the presence of director deformation. We are going to follow the idea that smectic layering is similar to the microphase separation in polymers [3 – 4]. The orientational and translational orderings at the curved surfaces of small solid objects dispersed in liquid crystal (LC) are considered, and the differential equations for gradients of the order parameters in vicinities of the small objects are presented in the general form. The five elastic constants are obtained within the same approach, from which we were able to predict that a significant space variations of the order parameters can be observed within the 0.5 − 0.8 μm area around any small object, almost independently of its own dimension. Therefore, the liquid crystals can be a simple tool for the optical visualization of nanoobjects.