Angle Dependence of Nematic Liquid Crystal Dynamics with Conical Boundary Condition

Abstract

In the manufacture of the thin film for liquid crystal devices, we can often find the situation in which the directors are equilibrated under the constraint that fixes only their polar angles on the film surface. We call this surface constraint the “conical boundary condition”. In this study, we investigate the dynamics of nematic liquid crystal under the conical boundary condition by a cell dynamical system (CDS) method. In particular, we focus on the anchoring and conical polar angle dependences of the annihilation time of topological defects and the time needed for equilibration. The angle dependence on the time characteristic of phase ordering is recognized and explained using the simplified scheme of director configuration under the hybrid condition of the conical and anchoring boundaries.