Effective anchoring energy of an organic liquid crystal film on a solid surface

We have carried out a numerical study of the structural, thermodynamic, and anchoring properties of organic liquid crystal (LC) films (OLCFs) deposited in vacuo on a solid surface. Calculations have been carried out in the framework of the extended McMillan approach for anisotropic forces. The effects of surface enhanced pair interactions in the bounding LC/solid and LC/vacuum layers and of film thickness on the orientational and translational order parameters, as well as on Helmholtz free energy, entropy, and anchoring energy of OLCFs have been investigated. A reasonable agreement between the theoretically predicted and the experimentally obtained data on the anchoring energy of 4-n-octyl-4′-cyanobiphenyl films has been obtained.