Spherical nematics with a threefold valence

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of the energetics of thin nematic shells with two charge one-half defects and one charge-one defect. We determine the optimal arrangement: the defects are located on a great circle at the vertices of an isosceles triangle with angles of 66 degrees at the charge one-half defects and a distinct angle of 48 degrees, consistent with experimental findings. We also analyse thermal fluctuations around this ground state and estimate the energy as a function of thickness. We find that the energy of the three-defect shell is close to the energy of other known configurations having two charge-one and four charge one-half defects. This finding, together with the large energy barriers separating one configuration from the others, explains their observation in experiments as well as their long-time stability.

8 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Nematic textures in spherical shells
• Topological Defects in Spherical Nematics
• Role of disclinations in determining the morphology of deformable fluid interfaces
• Simulating defect textures on coalescing nematic shells

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Topological defects in cholesteric liquid crystal shells
• Design of nematic liquid crystals to control microscale dynamics
• Temperature-driven anchoring transitions at liquid crystal / water interfaces
• Helfrich-Hurault elastic instabilities driven by geometrical frustration
• Hydrodynamic theory for nematic shells: the interplay among curvature, flow and alignment
• Liquid Crystals on Deformable Surfaces
• Influence of the Extrinsic Curvature on 2D Nematic Films
• Curvature-driven stability of defects in nematic textures over spherical disks