A periodic director structure of nematic liquid crystals in a high-frequency electric field

We report an electrohydrodynamic instability, the prewavy instability, in nematic liquid crystals in a high-frequency electric field. This instability shows isotropic feature, zigzag flows, and constant spatial periodicity with respect to the amplitude and frequency of the applied electric field. It should be distinguished from similar instabilities such as the isotropic electrolyte mode, the inertia mode and the dielectric mode reported already.