title: Defect Interactions in Anisotropic Two-Dimensional Fluids.
abstract: Disclinations in liquid crystals bear striking analogies to defect structures in a wide variety of physical systems, and their straightforward optical observability makes them excellent models to study fundamental properties of defect interactions. We employ freely suspended smectic-C films, which behave as quasi-two-dimensional polar nematics. A procedure to capture high-strength disclinations in localized spots is introduced. These disclinations are released in a controlled way, and the motion of the mutually repelling topological charges with strength +1 is studied quantitatively. We demonstrate that the classical models, which employ elastic one-constant approximation, fail to describe their dynamics correctly. In realistic liquid crystals, even small differences between splay and bend constants lead to the selection of pure splay or pure bend +1 defects. For those, the models work only in very special configurations. In general, additional director walls are involved which reinforce the repulsive interactions substantially.
authors: Institute for Experimental Physics, Otto von Guericke University, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany.
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Stannarius
authors: Institute for Experimental Physics, Otto von Guericke University, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany.
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Harth