Anchoring screening of defects interaction in a nematic liquid crystal

The relaxation dynamic of a dipole of +1/2 and -1/2 parallel disclination lines in a confined geometry is measured. The confinement and the planar anchoring conditions force the disclinations to be normal to the glass plates. In a first asymptotic regime, the direct elastic interaction between disclination is completely screened out by the anchoring energy. In a second regime, corresponding to the final annihilation steps, the dynamic follows the square-root law predicted by de Gennes for two isolated and parallel disclinations. The annihilation dynamic, in the asymptotic regime, is in good agreement with an elastic model based on an electrostatic analogy.