Electric field induced inversion of the sign of half-integer disclinations in nematic liquid crystals

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2011

Authors

Avelino, PP (Author) FCUP; Moraes, F (Author) Other; J.C.R.E. Oliveira (Author) FEUP; de Oliveira, BF (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Soft Matter

Vol. 7 No. 1

Pages: 10961-10966

ISSN: 1744-683X

Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 6 Citations

Scopus - 6 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-ZJS

DOI: 10.1039/c1sm05990d

Abstract (EN): We study the effect of the rotation of an external electric field on the dynamics of half-integer disclination networks in two dimensional nematic liquid crystals with a negative dielectric anisotropy using LICRA, a LIquid CRystal Algorithm developed by the authors. We show that a rotation of p of the electric field around an axis of the liquid crystal plane continuously transforms all half-integer disclinations of the network into disclinations of opposite sign via twist disclinations. We also determine the evolution of the characteristic length scale, thus quantifying the impact of the external electric field on the coarsening of the defect network.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6