Magnetically induced alignment of FNS

In this work we report the observation of magnetically controlled anchoring of ferro-nematic suspensions. We found that application of a weak magnetic field to a cell with the ferro-suspension induces an easy orientation axis with weak anchoring energy on a glass surface. Varying the direction of the magnetic field can change the easy axis orientation. We believe that the magnetically induced alignment of the ferro-liquid crystal (LC) suspension is caused by adsorption of the ferro-particles on the glass surface and this alignment can be manipulated with a magnetic field. The developed system is very promising for ultra-sensitive magnetically controlled LC devices for information processing and storage. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.