Thickness effects on pattern formation in liquid crystals in a rotating magnetic field

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Abstract
We study the thickness effect on solitons and pattern formation in liquid crystals in a rotating magnetic field. When the thickness of a sample is comparable to the coherence length of the magnetic field, it is regarded as ``thin.'' For thin samples, we have found patterns that originate from the flow coupling of dynamic solitons in the synchronous regime. The soliton behavior and pattern formation in thin samples are different from those in the thick ones. For all sample thicknesses in the asynchronous regime, the pattern formation in a nematic cell in a rotating magnetic field can be explained with such important components as instability caused by flow (transient stripes), viscosity reduction mechanism, and phase delay (short-wavelength lattice). The effect of thickness in the synchronous regime can be explained by a scaling method. In the asynchronous regime, the finite thickness affects the pattern responses through its confinement of flow.