Article in Crystals

Samo Kralj from the Department of Solid State Physics F5 and colleagues from Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland published an article in the journal Crystals with the title Reconfiguration of nematic disclinations in plane-parallel confinements.

They study numerically the reconfiguration process of colliding |m|=1/2 strength disclinations in a nematic liquid crystal (NLC). A Landau-de Gennes approach in terms of a tensor nematic order parameters is used. Initially, different pairs of parallel wedge disclinations were formed connecting opposite substrates confining the NLC in a plane-parallel cell. The collisions are triggered by the relative rotation of the azimuthal angle of the substrates that strongly pin the defect end points. They illustrate qualitatively different rewiring processes.