STUDIES OF DOMAINS, WALLS AND DISCLINATIONS IN THE SMECTIC C PHASE

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Domains of opposite tilt are generated and studied in smectic C samples with boundary conditions in principle giving a Schlieren type, although more regularly ordered, texture. A number of features characteristic of the C phase as a vector medium and differing from the analoguous nematic case are pointed out and investigated experimentally : a closed wall is equivalent to a family of point singularities and transforms to such a structure on annealing. This is a particularly illustrating example of the disclinations being created pair-wise, obeying a kind of conservation law for disclination strength, analoguous to charge conservation

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: