Interplay between anchoring and wetting at a nematic-substrate interface

Abstract

We use a generalized van der Waals molecular theory to study a model substrate-nematic interface in the regime of complete wetting and in a situation of competing interactions at the interface. The analysis shows that an anchoring transition between states with planar and homeotropic director configuration may play the role of a prewetting transition, and that reentrant anchoring must generally occur. As a result one expects complete wetting in a finite temperature range. The study provides a general context within which anchoring and wetting phenomena can be related