Fig. 9: Characteristics of simulated DW pairs.
From: Soliton walls paired by polar surface interactions in a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal
a Energy ratio of a planar domain wall (θ = 0) versus one with a tilt (θ > 0), as calculated from minimizing the Frank–Oseen energy in Eq. (4) using the ansatz in Eq. (3) for various values of K1/K3 and d/ξ3. Note the marked energy gain from introducing a tilt for thick cells. For thinner cells, \(d/{\xi }_{3} < 10\), the gain is negligible, especially at large ratios \({K}_{1}/{K}_{3}\). b Ratio of width parameters \({L}_{3\pi /2}/{L}_{\pi /2}\) vs \({K}_{1}/{K}_{3}\) for different cell thicknesses \(d/{\xi }_{3}\). Note that this ratio is expected to be smaller whenever there is substantial tilt in the director configuration. For thinner cells, \(d/{\xi }_{3} < 10\), the ratio approaches the planar value (black line) for large \({K}_{1}/{K}_{3}\) as the tilt becomes negligible. In all simulations, \(\omega =0.1\) and \({K}_{2}/{K}_{3}=0.5\). The dashed line shows \({L}_{3\pi /2}/{L}_{\pi /2}\)=1.8 obtained by averaging experimental data for 64 DW pairs. The lines connecting the data points in these plots are a guide to the eye.
