Defect kinetics and dynamics of pattern coarsening in a two-dimensional smectic-A system

@article{MohieddinAbukhdeir2008DefectKA,
  title={Defect kinetics and dynamics of pattern coarsening in a two-dimensional smectic-A system},
  author={Nasser Mohieddin Abukhdeir and Alejandro D. Rey},
  journal={New Journal of Physics},
  year={2008},
  volume={10},
  pages={063025}
}
Two-dimensional simulations of the coarsening process of the isotropic/smectic-A phase transition are presented using a high-order Landau–de Gennes-type free energy model. Defect annihilation laws for smectic disclinations, elementary dislocations and total dislocation content are determined. The computed evolution of the orientational correlation length and disclination density is found to be in agreement with previous experimental observations showing that disclination interactions dominate… 
View on IOP Publishing
doi.org
27 Citations
Background Citations
6
Methods Citations
4

27 Citations

Shape-dynamic growth, structure, and elasticity of homogeneously oriented spherulites in an isotropic/smectic-A mesophase transition

A Landau-de Gennes model that integrates the nematic quadrupolar tensor order parameter and complex smectic-A order parameters is used to simulate the two-dimensional growth of an initially…

Defect dynamics in mesophases

Block copolymer phases are a fertile ground in which to investigate both equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of mesophases (phases that exhibit partial broken symmetries, intermediate between a…

Structure of smectic-A liquid crystals in nonuniform domains: Modeling the impact of imperfect boundaries.

This paper describes the construction of equilibrium configurations for smectic-A liquid crystals subjected to nonuniform physical boundary conditions, with two-dimensional dependence on the director…

Visualization of Individual Defect Mobility and Annihilation within Cylinder-Forming Diblock Copolymer Thin Films on Nanopatterned Substrates

We have tracked the mobility, approach, and annihilation of defects in cylinder-forming diblock copolymer thin films on nanopatterned substrates using high-temperature and in situ time-lapse atomic…

Scaling properties of ageing orientation fluctuations in stripe phases

The results reveal how the coarsening of orientation fluctuations prevents a periodically modulated phase free of topological defects from reaching equilibrium.

Controlling the Self‐Assembly of Periodic Defect Patterns in Smectic Liquid Crystal Films with Electric Fields

Large‐area periodic defect patterns are produced in smectic A liquid crystals confined between rigid plate electrodes that impose conflicting parallel and normal anchoring conditions, inducing the…

Complex-tensor theory of simple smectics

Matter self-assembling into layers generates unique properties, including structures of stacked surfaces, directed transport, and compact area maximization that can be highly functionalized in…

Modeling the isotropic/smectic-C tilted lamellar liquid crystalline transition

Extensions of a previously presented Landau-de Gennes type liquid crystalline phase transition model for the direct isotropic/smectic-A (lamellar) a phase transition to the direct isotropic/smectic-C…

Equilibrium phases and domain growth kinetics of calamitic liquid crystals.

The anisotropic shape of calamitic liquid crystal (LC) particles results in distinct values of energy when the nematogens are placed side by side or end to end. This anisotropy in energy which is…

Defect textures in polygonal arrangements of cylindrical inclusions in cholesteric liquid crystal matrices

A systematic, computational and scaling analysis of defect textures in polygonal arrangement of cylindrical particles embedded in a cholesteric (Ch) liquid crystal matrix is performed using the…

41 References

Dynamics of pattern coarsening in a two-dimensional smectic system.

It is described how annihilation events involving multiple disclinations result in similarly reduced kinetic exponents as observed here and these results map onto a wide variety of physical systems that exhibit similarly striped patterns.

Growth and structure of nematic spherulites under shallow thermal quenches

The growth kinetics, shape, interfacial and internal orientation texture of a submicron nematic spherulite arising during the isotropic-to-nematic liquid crystal phase transformation under shallow…

Interfacial nematodynamics of heterogeneous curved isotropic-nematic moving fronts.

It is shown that texture formation in the early stages of phase ordering is interface driven, and due to low interface tension, elastic anisotropy, and large curvature, that leads to highly textured nematic spherulites through a mechanism of interfacial defect nucleation.

Entropy-induced smectic phases in rod-coil copolymers

We present a self-consistent field theory (SCFT) for dilute solutions of semiflexible (wormlike) diblock copolymers, each consisting of a rigid and a flexible part. The segments of the polymers are…

Dislocation and impurity effects in smectic‐A liquid crystals

The effects of dislocations and impurities on the macroscopic elastic properties of smectic‐A liquid crystals are discussed. The first conclusion is that smectics behave like linear elastic media…

Grain boundary pinning and glassy dynamics in stripe phases.

  • D. BoyerJ. Viñals
  • Materials Science
    Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
  • 2002
The relationship between defect pinning and the coarsening laws obtained in the intermediate time regime is discussed and a a constant of order unity is discussed.

Evolution of disorder in two-dimensional stripe patterns: "Smectic" instabilities and disclination unbinding.

  • SeulWolfe
  • Physics
    Physical review letters
  • 1992
A combination of video polarization microscopy and extensive digital line pattern analysis has been invoked to examine in quantitative detail the transformation of a lamellar into a «labyrinthine»…

Disclinations, dislocations and continuous defects: a reappraisal

Disclinations were first observed in mesomorphic phases. They were later found relevant to a number of ill-ordered condensed-matter media involving continuous symmetries or frustrated order.…

Landau-de Gennes theory of isotropic-nematic-smectic liquid crystal transitions.

The complete phase diagram of the system is derived, that is, how the homogeneous minimizers depend on the value of the constitutive parameters, and the effect on an infinitesimal second-order regularization term in the free-energy functional, which fixes the optimal number of defects in the singular configurations.

Mechanisms of ordering in striped patterns.

The kinetic scaling laws with exponents observed here are consistent with topologically allowed annihilation events involving multiple disclinations, and may lead to the successful application of block copolymer lithography.