Thickness Induced Line-Defect Reconfigurations in Thin Nematic Cell

Figure 3

Polarizing optical microscopy patterns for two thicknesses: L = 10 (left) and L = 30 (right). These patterns correspond to spin configurations illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. The laser wavelength 445 nm was arbitrary chosen, and the ordinary and extraordinary refraction indices 1.544 and 1.821 correspond to NLC E7 [12, 13]. The real thickness was set to h = 2 μm for the L = 10 cell and 6 μm for the L = 30 cell.