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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Defect trajectories and domain-wall loop dynamics during two-frequency switching in a bistable azimuthal nematic
A J Davidson1, C V Brown, N J Mottram
1Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Strathclyde, 26 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XH, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Bistable azimuthal nematic alignment textures have been created in micrometer-scale channels for which one sidewall is smooth and straight and the other possesses a symmetric sawtooth morphology. The optical textures have been observed during dynamic switching between the two stable states in response to dual frequency ac waveform driving of a highly dispersive nematic liquid crystal. The switching processes involves collapsing of filamentlike director reorientation (tilt-wall) loops and the associated motion and annihilation of surface defects along and close to the edge at the sawtooth sidewall. The predictions from both the n-director-based Ericksen-Leslie theory and the Q-tensor theory are in good agreement with the experimental observations.
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