Kinetics of director gliding on a polymer-liquid-crystal interface

Magnetic-field-induced surface reorientation of nematic liquid crystals on polyethyl-methacrylate films is studied. The experiments indicate that the time scale of director gliding expands from a fraction of a second to several hours. A power-law distribution function of relaxation times provides very good agreement between measurements and calculated gliding curves. From the model an upper limit of the extrapolation length can be extracted, which points to a surprisingly strong equilibrium azimuthal anchoring of the liquid crystal on the polymer layer.