Unstable periodic structures in nematic liquid crystals

Unstable Periodic Structures in Nematic Liquid Crystals

Field-induced transient periodic structures in nematic liquid crystals : the splay Frederiks transition

2014 A beautiful striped texture is often observed as the initial response of a uniformly aligned nematic liquid crystal to a suddenly applied reorienting field The structure of the instability depends on the elastic and viscous anisotropy of the liquid crystal, the field strength, and in an important way on the boundary conditions imposed by the sample cell. We have studied the geometry in whi...

Domain Structures in Nematic Liquid Crystals on a Polycarbonate Surface

Alignment of nematic liquid crystals on polycarbonate films obtained with the use of solvents with different solvations is studied. Domain structures occurring during the growth on the polymer surface against the background of the initial thread-like or schlieren texture are demonstrated. It is established by optical methods that the domains are stable formations visualizing the polymer surface...

Defect structures in nematic liquid crystals around charged particles.

We numerically study the orientation deformations in nematic liquid crystals around charged particles. We set up a Ginzburg-Landau theory with inhomogeneous electric field. If the dielectric anisotropy epsilon 1 is positive, Saturn-ring defects are formed around the particles. For epsilon 1< 0 , novel "ansa" defects appear, which are disclination lines with their ends on the particle surface. W...

Nematic Liquid Crystals: Defects

There are two types of defects in the uniaxial nematic F phase: line defects (disclinations) and point defects (hedgehogs and boojums). These are reviewed at three levels: (i) experimental observations; (ii) topological classification; and (iii) curvature elasticity. The reader is referred to the textbooks on liquid crystals (Chandrasekhar 1992, de Gennes and Prost 1993), defects (Kltman 1983),...