Soliton-like defects in nematic liquid crystal thin layers
- Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Molecule and Crystal Physics, Ufa Research Center (Russian Federation)
The nonsingular soliton-like defects in plane nematic liquid crystal (NLC) layers and spherical NLC drops are experimentally detected and studied when the interaction of NLC molecules with a bounding surface is varied. The dynamics and the annihilation of nonsingular defects of opposite signs on a plane surface are investigated. Periodic transformations of the soliton-like defects in NLC drops in an electric field are detected. The theory of elasticity is used to show that the surface energy taken into account in the total free energy of NLC in the case of weak anchoring leads to the possibility of nonsingular solutions of a director equilibrium equation. The calculated pictures of director distribution in a plane NLC layer and in a spherical NLC drop characterized by weak surface anchoring agree well with the results of polarized light optical observations.
- OSTI ID:
- 22617125
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics, Vol. 123, Issue 5; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2016 Pleiades Publishing, Inc.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1063-7761
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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