Smectic A liquid crystal configurations with interface defects

M. Carme Calderer, Chun Liu, Karl Voss

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study planar energy minimizing configurations of smectic A liquid crystal materials and classify the corresponding defect structures. We investigate focal conic configurations in wedge, non-parallel plates, funnel-shaped domains, and non-concentric annuli. The application of the stability condition for local conics is relevant to the specification of the location of the interfacial defects. Self-similar structures are discussed for a class of solutions with the same bulk energy. We propose surface energies terms to serve as selection mechanisms of particular self-similar configurations. We also show how the modelling of chevron texture naturally arises in the present framework.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)473-489
Number of pages17
JournalMathematical Methods in the Applied Sciences
Volume24
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - May 10 2001

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