Influence of latent heat and thermal diffusion on the growth of nematic liquid crystal nuclei

Abstract

The growth of nematic liquid crystal nuclei from an isotropic melt follows a power law behavior with exponent n found experimentally to vary between 1/2 for low quench depths, up to 1 for high quench depths. This behavior has been attributed to the competition between curvature and free energy. We show that curvature cannot account for the low quench depth behavior of the nucleus growth, and attribute this behavior to the diffusion of latent heat. We use a multiscale approach to solve the Landau-Ginzburg order parameter evolution equation coupled to a diffusive heat equation, and discuss this behavior for material parameters experimentally measured for the liquid crystal 8CB.