Configuration of a smectic A liquid crystal due to an isolated edge dislocation

B C Snow, I W Stewart

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Abstract

We discuss the static configuration of a smectic A liquid crystal subject to an edge dislocation under the assumption that the director and layer normal fields (n and a, respectively) defining the smectic arrangement are not, in general, equivalent. After constructing the free energy for the smectic, we obtain exact solutions to the equilibrium equations which result from its minimisation at quadratic order in the variables which describe the distortion, and hence a complete description of the smectic configuration across the domain of the sample. We also examine the effect of relaxing the constraint n≡a for different values of the constants which characterise the response of the material to distortions, and compare these results with the 'classical' case considered by previous authors, in which equivalence of n and a is enforced.
LanguageEnglish
Article number195101
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Physics: Condensed Matter
Volume29
Issue number19
Early online date5 Apr 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 May 2017

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Liquid Crystals
Edge dislocations
edge dislocations
Liquid crystals
liquid crystals
equilibrium equations
configurations
Free energy
equivalence
free energy
optimization

Keywords

  • dislocation
  • smectic liquid crystals
  • nonlinear continuum model

Cite this

Snow, B C ; Stewart, I W. / Configuration of a smectic A liquid crystal due to an isolated edge dislocation. In: Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. 2017 ; Vol. 29, No. 19.
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Snow, BC & Stewart, IW 2017, 'Configuration of a smectic A liquid crystal due to an isolated edge dislocation' Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, vol. 29, no. 19, 195101. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/aa6751

Configuration of a smectic A liquid crystal due to an isolated edge dislocation. / Snow, B C; Stewart, I W.

In: Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 29, No. 19, 195101, 17.05.2017.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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AU - Stewart, I W

PY - 2017/5/17

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N2 - We discuss the static configuration of a smectic A liquid crystal subject to an edge dislocation under the assumption that the director and layer normal fields (n and a, respectively) defining the smectic arrangement are not, in general, equivalent. After constructing the free energy for the smectic, we obtain exact solutions to the equilibrium equations which result from its minimisation at quadratic order in the variables which describe the distortion, and hence a complete description of the smectic configuration across the domain of the sample. We also examine the effect of relaxing the constraint n≡a for different values of the constants which characterise the response of the material to distortions, and compare these results with the 'classical' case considered by previous authors, in which equivalence of n and a is enforced.

AB - We discuss the static configuration of a smectic A liquid crystal subject to an edge dislocation under the assumption that the director and layer normal fields (n and a, respectively) defining the smectic arrangement are not, in general, equivalent. After constructing the free energy for the smectic, we obtain exact solutions to the equilibrium equations which result from its minimisation at quadratic order in the variables which describe the distortion, and hence a complete description of the smectic configuration across the domain of the sample. We also examine the effect of relaxing the constraint n≡a for different values of the constants which characterise the response of the material to distortions, and compare these results with the 'classical' case considered by previous authors, in which equivalence of n and a is enforced.

KW - dislocation

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KW - nonlinear continuum model

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Snow BC, Stewart IW. Configuration of a smectic A liquid crystal due to an isolated edge dislocation. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. 2017 May 17;29(19). 195101. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/aa6751

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