Molecular dynamics simulation of a nanoscopic nematic twist cell.

We present molecular dynamics simulations of a nanoscopic nematic twist cell confined within two bounding substrates with conflicting anchoring conditions. The results of our simulations show that the torque transmitted through the cell drops significantly below a certain critical cell's thickness, thus confirming the predictions of the continuum Landau theory extrapolated down to the nanoscopic scale [F. Bisi, E. G. Virga, and G. E. Durand, Phys. Rev. E 70, 042701 (2004)].