Shear Induced Optical Textures and Their Relaxation Behaviour in Thermotropic Liquid Crystalline Polymers

We describe and classify optical textures observed in thermotropic liquid crystal polymers at elevated temperatures. The evolution from the static state to different textures observed as a consequence of controlled shearing experiments is reported together with the subsequent relaxation behaviour at the cessation of flow. Some of the observations show similarities with the behaviour of the phases of small molecule liquid crystals whilst others appear unique to liquid crystal polymers.