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Expulsion of disclinations in nematic liquid crystals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2003

PAOLO BISCARI  and
TIMOTHY J. SLUCKIN
PAOLO BISCARI
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Matematica, Politecnico, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia, Via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy email: paolo.biscari@polimi.it
TIMOTHY J. SLUCKIN
Affiliation:
Faculty of Mathematical Studies, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK email: t.j.sluckin@maths.soton.ac.uk
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Abstract

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We study the interactions between a nematic liquid crystal disclination and the surface of the half-space which bounds it. When strong anchoring conditions are applied on the boundary, the biaxial core of the disclination affects the repulsive force that tends to drive the disclination away from the surface. If we replace the strong boundary conditions with an anchoring potential, the surface-disclination interaction depends on the surface extrapolation length. In particular, the nematic may expel the disclination if the anchoring strength is below a critical value.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of Applied Mathematics , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , February 2003 , pp. 39 - 59
Copyright
2003 Cambridge University Press