Viscous Fingering in a Smectic Liquid Crystal

V. K. Horvath*, J. Kertesz, T. Vicsek

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

To study the effects of a driving force on interfacial-pattern formation, we introduce a novel experimental system, a radial Hele-Shaw cell with nitrogen injected into a smectic liquid crystal. In the absence of initial alignment of the molecules a cross-over can be observed: the effective fractal dimension of the pattern changes from the value D approximately equals 1. 6 (low pressures) to D approximately equals 2 (high pressures). If an external magnetic field is applied to achieve uniaxial ordering, a dramatic change in the direction of the easy growth takes place as a function of the increasing pressure. The results are discussed in terms of the internal structure of smectics.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1133-1137
Number of pages5
JournalEPL
Volume4
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 1987
Externally publishedYes

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