Effect of ionic charge on flexoelectric deformations in planar nematic layers

Elastic deformations of nematic liquid crystal layers subjected to d.c. electric field were studied numerically. Nearly planar alignment with 1° tilt angle and with finite surface anchoring strength was assumed. The flexoelectric properties of the nematic material as well as the ionic space charge were taken into account. Perfectly blocking electrodes were adopted. The director orientation, the electric potential distribution and the space charge density were calculated. The optical transmission of the layer placed between crossed polarizers was also determined. The deformations had nearly threshold character due to the low value of the surface tilt. It was found that the threshold voltage strongly depended on the parameters of the system. When the nematic was not flexoelectric, the value of the threshold voltage was independent of the ion concentration and was equal to about 1 volt. In the case of a flexoelectric nematic, the threshold as low as a few tenths of a volt occurred when the ion concentration was sufficiently high, and given sufficiently large magnitudes of the flexoelectric coefficients. These results can be explained as the effect of the inhomogeneous electric field arising in vicinity of the surfaces created by the ionic space charge redistributed by the external voltage.