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Updated: May 18, 2026

Forming, Confining, and Observing Microtubule-Based Active Nematics
Published on: January 13, 2023
Surface and bulk contributions to nematic order reconstruction
A Amoddeo1, R Barberi, G Lombardo
1Mechanics and Materials Department, Università "Mediterranea" di Reggio Calabria, I-89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy. antonino.amoddeo@unirc.it
Abstract:
Nematic molecules confined in an asymmetric π cell and subjected to strong electric fields exhibit textural distortions involving nematic order variations, described by the Landau-de Gennes Q-tensor theory. We investigated the evolution of order variations as function of the applied electric pulse amplitude and of the nematic surface pretilt anchoring angles by implementing a Q-tensor model with a moving mesh finite element method. The proposed technique is able to clearly distinguish the bulk and the surface order reconstruction which occur in the cell.
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