Anticonical Anchoring And Surface Transitions In A Nematic Liquid Crystal

Recent works reported planar and conical azimuthally degenerated nematic anchorings. Here we predict an additional "anticonical" degenerated anchoring. Its energy presents two minima, parallel and perpendicular to the substrate plane, separated by a conical energy barrier. We realize this bistable anchoring on a grafted polymer brush and we observe temperature-driven transitions between the conical, planar, and anticonical degenerated anchorings. Under electric field we break the anticonical anchoring and switch between its bistable states.