Scaling of the elastic contribution to the surface free energy of a nematic liquid crystal on a sawtoothed substrate
We characterize the elastic contribution to the surface free energy of a nematic liquid crystal in the presence of a sawtooth substrate. Our findings are based on numerical minimization of the Landau-de Gennes model and analytical calculations on the Frank-Oseen theory. The nucleation of disclinatio...
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| Other Authors: | , |
| Format: | article |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
2011
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/671 |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Oai: | oai:repositorio.ipl.pt:10400.21/671 |
| Summary: | We characterize the elastic contribution to the surface free energy of a nematic liquid crystal in the presence of a sawtooth substrate. Our findings are based on numerical minimization of the Landau-de Gennes model and analytical calculations on the Frank-Oseen theory. The nucleation of disclination lines (characterized by non-half-integer winding numbers) in the wedges and apexes of the substrate induces a leading order proportional to q ln q to the elastic contribution to the surface free-energy density, with q being the wave number associated with the substrate periodicity. |
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