Coarsening of Reverse Tilt Domains in Liquid-Crystal Cells with Heterogeneous Alignment Layers

Abstract

When an electric field above the Fr\'eedericksz threshold is applied to a nematic liquid crystal in a cell with heterogeneous alignment layers, the system exhibits reverse tilt domains. Over a time scale of seconds to minutes, the disordered domain pattern coarsens into a uniform texture. Analysis of the coarsening dynamics shows that the characteristic length scale $L$ grows with time $t$ as $L\ensuremath{\sim}(\mathrm{log}t{)}^{4}$. This scaling is consistent with predictions of the random-bond Ising model, in which randomness in the Ising bond strength represents heterogeneity in the alignment layers.