Abstract
Monte Carlo simulations are used to investigate the director configurations and the arrangements of the disclination lines that form in nematic shells surrounding interior spherical and polyhedral particles. For nematic shells formed around an interior spherical particle, a tetrahedral arrangement of the disclination lines is observed but this arrangement is lost if the interior sphere is shifted from the centre. The simulations indicate that a narrower angular distribution is observed for interior tetrahedral particles and, for non-centrosymmetric shells, the distribution is significantly less broadened compared to similar spherical inclusions. Other shape polyhedral particles are shown to give disclination geometries of different symmetries.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2390-2399 |
| Journal | LIQUID CRYSTALS |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue number | 13-15 |
| Early online date | 16 Oct 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 8 Dec 2018 |
Bibliographical note
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.Keywords
- Monte Carlo; nematic shells; disclination lines; defects
