Dynamics of Annihilation Process of Disclination Pairs in Nematic Liquid Crystals

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Abstract
We investigated the dynamics of annihilation process of a defect pair in the nematic phase which were generated as type-1 wedge disclinations by quenching the isotropic phase. We measured the time dependence of the distance between a defect pair with or without external electric field. The distance decreased linearly with time immediately after the defect pair was generated (the early stage) and then decreased to zero in proportion to the square root of the time to elapse before the defect pair was annihilated (the late stage). We also treated the annihilation dynamics by numerical simulation with a two-dimensional phenomenological equation of motion, and the simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental ones. The ratio of the coefficient of viscosity to that of elasticity and the strength of ordering field were evaluated from the comparison between the simulation and experimental results.