Thermotropic uniaxial nematic liquid crystal with ± 1/2 strength disclinations: defect-antidefect production and correlation.

We report the observation of mostly wedge disclinations of strength ± 1/2 in a uniaxial nematic liquid crystal. The dense network of the disclination is stabilized in cells of thickness (∼6 µm) treated with perfluoropolymer. The distribution of net defect strength was found to be Gaussian. The scaling exponent obtained from the width of the distribution is ν = 0.29 ± 0.08 and is in good agreement with the prediction based on the cosmological Kibble mechanism. The exponent and the constant of the scaling relation are compared with the values reported for lyotropic liquid crystal with half-strength disclination by Mukai and co-workers.