Topology and Bistability in liquid crystal devices
Mathematical Physics
2009-11-11 v1 General Topology
math.MP
Abstract
We study nematic liquid crystal configurations in a prototype bistable device - the Post Aligned Bistable Nematic (PABN) cell. Working within the Oseen-Frank continuum model, we describe the liquid crystal configuration by a unit-vector field, in a model version of the PABN cell. Firstly, we identify four distinct topologies in this geometry. We explicitly construct trial configurations with these topologies which are used as initial conditions for a numerical solver, based on the finite-element method. The morphologies and energetics of the corresponding numerical solutions qualitatively agree with experimental observations and suggest a topological mechanism for bistability in the PABN cell geometry.
Cite
@article{arxiv.math-ph/0611016,
title = {Topology and Bistability in liquid crystal devices},
author = {A. Majumdar and C. J. P. Newton and J. M. R. Robbins and M. Zyskin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math-ph/0611016},
year = {2009}
}