Coarsening Dynamics of +1 and -1 Disclinations in Two-Dimensionally Aligned Nematics –Spatial Distribution of Disclinations–

Abstract

Dynamics of interacting +1 and -1 disclinations in the two-dimensionally aligned nematics was investigated experimentally. A position and a sign of individual disclination were measured from the image of polarizing microscope, and then the spatial distribution of disclinations was analyzed by calculating the correlation functions of the number density of disclinations and the distribution functions of the separation of k th-nearest-neighbor disclination pairs. As a result of the interaction among the disclinations, the distribution of disclinations deviates from the random distribution. Each disclination is influenced strongly by other disclinations existing within a distance less than several times of the nearest-neighbor distance. In addition, the correlation functions of the number density of disclinations obtained in the experiment can be well described by the theory for the vortices in the two-dimensional XY system [F. Liu and G. F. Mazenko: Phys Rev. B 46 (1992) 5963].