In liquid crystal applications, boundary conditions are essential to ensuring suitable bulk molecular orientation and a deterministic response to external fields. Be it confinement to a droplet or a shell, a glass plate, or an interface with air or another liquid, proper surface alignment must be ensured—mechanically by rubbing, by chemical treatment that adds a layer of aligning molecules, by using photoalignment or even by leaving the surface untreated, using the intrinsic properties of the substrate itself. The anchoring can be classified as unidirectional (perpendicular homeotropic, or at oblique angles), or degenerate (planar or pre-tilted). However, if both substances at the interface are anisotropic, more diverse behaviour is expected. Here, we present a numerical simulation of a nematic droplet in a nematic host, and investigate behaviour of the director field and defects at the interface for different interfacial couplings. Finally, we compare the simulations to experimental images of discotic droplets in a calamitic nematic host.

中文翻译：

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两种液晶材料之间的界面上的相互作用

在液晶应用中，边界条件对于确保合适的本体分子取向和对外部场的确定性响应至关重要。无论是液滴，壳体，玻璃板还是与空气或其他液体的接触面，都必须确保适当的表面对齐-通过机械摩擦，化学处理，添加一层对齐分子的化学处理，通过光对齐或什至是通过使用基材本身的固有特性，使表面保持未经处理的状态。锚固可分为单向（垂直，垂直或倾斜）或退化（平面或预倾斜）。但是，如果界面处的两种物质都是各向异性的，则预期会有更多不同的行为。在这里，我们提出了向列宿主中向列液滴的数值模拟，并研究不同界面耦合情况下指向矢场的行为和界面处的缺陷。最后，我们将模拟与盘状向列宿主中盘状液滴的实验图像进行比较。