Wetting and dewetting of nanoscale films of nematic liquid crystal*

The evolution of ultra-thin films (tens of nm) of nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) is considered. Such free-surface films can undergo complex dewetting behavior, as observed in experiments. We present a simplified thin-film model for the free surface evolution that includes strong spatially-varying planar anchoring at the substrate, and weak antagonistic anchoring at the free surface. A number of large-scale simulations are presented, showing good qualitative agreement with experiments. Ongoing work including the effect of spatially-varying electric fields on film evolution is briefly highlighted.