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Updated: Jul 6, 2026

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Inhomogeneous bulk nematic order reconstruction
1CNR-INFM LiCryL, CemifCal, Physics Department, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy.
Abstract:
A two-dimensional model within the Q-tensor description of liquid crystals is used to describe the inhomogeneous order reconstruction in a nematic cell driven by tony modulation in the anchoring conditions. Homogeneous and inhomogeneous reconstruction are contrasted: the former is defectless, the latter is defect mediated. While the transition thresholds are comparable in both cases and in good agreement with experimental data, the biaxial wall breaking is considerably slower in the inhomogeneous transition than in the homogeneous one. The shape of the signal given by the electric current flowing through the cell allows us to distinguish the actual path followed by the transition.
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