Electroconvection in nematic liquid crystals in Hele-Shaw cells.

We report electrohydrodynamic instability in nematic liquid crystals found in Hele-Shaw cells. Due to the present cell geometry, the convective structures could be directly visualized as surface or bulk flows. An unexpected structure is observed, which is completely different from the well-known patterns in the standard cells. By using the voltage-frequency jump method, the stability of a convective structure in Hele-Shaw cells is discussed in terms of the Busse diagram.