We consider a nematic liquid crystal film confined to a flat cell with homeotropic and planar patterned hybrid anchoring and show, using Monte Carlo simulations, the possibility of the system to stabilize line and point defects. The planar anchoring surface is patterned with a chessboardlike grid of squares with alternating random or parallel homogeneous planar anchoring. The simulations show only line defects when the individual domains are small enough, but also point defects when the domain size is significantly larger than the sample thickness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present a Monte Carlo study of the effects of elastic anisotropy on the topological defects which can be formed in nematic films with hybrid boundary conditions. We simulate the polarized microscopy images and analyze their evolution in uniaxial systems for different values of the Frank elastic constants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Phys Condens Matter
November 2013
The consistency of the frequency response predicted by a class of electrochemical impedance expressions is analytically checked by invoking the Kramers-Kronig (KK) relations. These expressions are obtained in the context of Poisson-Nernst-Planck usual or anomalous diffusional models that satisfy Poisson's equation in a finite length situation. The theoretical results, besides being successful in interpreting experimental data, are also shown to obey the KK relations when these relations are modified accordingly.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe response of an electrolytic cell, in the shape of a slab, is analyzed in the framework of the Poisson-Nernst-Planck model in the limit of full dissociation. Two different types of boundary conditions on the electrodes are compared. One type describes the exchange of charges between the volume and the external circuit, in the form originally proposed by Chang and Jaffé and later extended to include specific adsorption, where the surface current density is proportional to the variation of the surface bulk density of ions with respect to the value of equilibrium.
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