Anchoring and orientational wetting of nematic liquid crystals on semi-fluorinated self-assembled monolayer surfaces

We demonstrate that it is possible to achieve exceptionally fine control over the anchoring of liquid crystals via the use of semi-fluorinated self-assembled monolayers of varying spacer length. We use this approach to map the detailed shape of an anchoring transition surface in thermodynamic phase space and to explore the links between anchoring and orientational wetting phenomena. These results allow one to design a substrate that will place a standard liquid-crystal film arbitrarily close to an anchoring transition between homeotropic and planar anchoring.