Simões M, Palangana AJ, Arroteia AA, Vilarim PR. Arising of magnetic walls in the vicinities of the Frèedericksz transition.
PHYSICAL REVIEW. E, STATISTICAL, NONLINEAR, AND SOFT MATTER PHYSICS 2001;
63:041707. [PMID:
11308867 DOI:
10.1103/physreve.63.041707]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2000] [Revised: 11/27/2000] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
In this paper, the dynamical formation of twist-bend periodic walls at the neighborhoods of the Frèedericksz critical point of a nematic sample of liquid crystals is studied. The theory that describes the arising of these periodic structures affirms that the mode with the fastest initial growth will fix the observed properties of these patterns. But, just above the Frèedericksz threshold there is a region where this leading mode becomes null and, therefore, a homogeneous bending of the director may be detected. This prediction was not confirmed by the experiment, and walls with very well defined wavelength were found. We will show here that the fastest growing mode cannot be defined around the Frèedericksz threshold and, therefore, a new way to compute the observed periodicity must be formulated. We assume that the observed wall results from a sum of a continuum and nonsharp distribution of modes in which the null mode is at the center.
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