Pearce D J G, Kruse K
Department of Biochemistry, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
Soft Matter. 2021 Aug 11;17(31):7408-7417. doi: 10.1039/d1sm00825k.
Topological defects are one of the most conspicuous features of liquid crystals. In two dimensional nematics, they have been shown to behave effectively as particles with both charge and orientation, which dictate their interactions. Here, we study "twisted" defects that have a radially dependent orientation. We find that twist can be partially relaxed through the creation and annihilation of defect pairs. By solving the equations for defect motion and calculating the forces on defects, we identify four distinct elements that govern the relative relaxational motion of interacting topological defects, namely attraction, repulsion, co-rotation and co-translation. The interaction of these effects can lead to intricate defect trajectories, which can be controlled by setting relevant timescales.
拓扑缺陷是液晶最显著的特征之一。在二维向列相中，它们已被证明表现得像具有电荷和取向的粒子，这决定了它们的相互作用。在这里，我们研究具有径向相关取向的“扭曲”缺陷。我们发现，通过缺陷对的产生和湮灭，扭曲可以部分得到弛豫。通过求解缺陷运动方程并计算作用在缺陷上的力，我们确定了四个不同的因素，它们控制着相互作用的拓扑缺陷的相对弛豫运动，即吸引、排斥、共旋转和平移。这些效应的相互作用可导致复杂的缺陷轨迹，可通过设置相关时间尺度来控制。
