Nanoscale interfacial defect shedding in a growing nematic droplet

作者：Gurevich Sebastian; Provatas Nikolas; Rey Alejandro

来源：Physical Review E, 2017, 96(2): 022707.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevE.96.022707

Interfacial defect shedding is the most recent known mechanism for defect formation in a thermally driven isotropic-to-nematic phase transition. It manifests in nematic-isotropic interfaces going through an anchoring switch. Numerical computations in planar geometry established that a growing nematic droplet can undergo interfacial defect shedding, nucleating interfacial defect structures that shed into the bulk as +1/2 point defects. By extending the study of interfacial defect shedding in a growing nematic droplet to larger length and time scales, and to three dimensions, we unveil an oscillatory growth mode involving shape and anchoring transitions that results in a controllable regular distributions of point defects in planar geometry, and complex structures of disclination lines in three dimensions.

• 出版日期2017-8-11