Shape changing nonlocal molecular deformations in a nematic liquid crystal system

Abstract

The nature of nonlinear molecular deformations in a homeotropically aligned nematic liquid crystal (NLC) is presented. We start from the basic dynamical equation for the director axis of a NLC with elastic deformation and mapped onto a integro-differential perturbed Nonlinear Schrödinger equation which includes the nonlocal term. By invoking the modified extended tangent hyperbolic function method aided with symbolic computation, we obtain a series of solitary wave solutions. Under the influence of the nonlocality induced by the reorientation nonlinearity due to fluctuations in the molecular orientation, the solitary wave exhibits shape changing property for different choices of parameters. This intriguing property as a result of the relation between the coherence of the solitary deformation and the nonlocality reveals a strong need for a deeper understanding in the theory of self-localization in NLC systems.