Pseudo-Casimir Structural Force Drives Spinodal Dewetting in Nematic Liquid Crystals

Abstract

We analyze theoretically the fluctuation-induced force in thin nematic films subject to competing surface interactions, and we find that the force is attractive at small distances and repulsive otherwise. The results provide a consistent interpretation of a recent study of spinodal dewetting of 5CB on a silicon wafer [F. Vandenbrouck et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2693 (1999)], implying that this experiment can be regarded as the first observation of the pseudo-Casimir effect in liquid crystals.