Figure 4
From: Uncovering different states of topological defects in schlieren textures of a nematic liquid crystal
Discernible states of the defects found in schlieren textures of NLC doped with PMN. A set of microscope images (10 × 10 μm2 squares) of discernible defects with m = ±1/2 and ±1. Shown are POM images with crossed polarisers, those with polarisers rotated by 15 degrees, FOM images and those with an analyser from left to right at d ~(a) 1, (b) 2, (c) 3, and (d) 4 μm. Corresponding schematics of the distribution of n projected onto the cell plane, in which black sticks represent local n, are shown in each rightmost square. Yellow arrows indicate the direction of the elongation of dark spots for the defect with m = −1, which correspond to one of the characteristic axes of the defect with C2v symmetry. An example of the original images with schlieren texture is shown in Supplementary Fig. 1. When a chiral dopant (CB15) inducing right-handed twists is added, only (S, CW) and (L,CCW) form (see Supplementary Fig. 3 for the original images). (e) Example of the fluorescence profiles across the centre of the defects with m = +1 with different sizes of the dark spots (dips) at d ~2 μm. (f) d-dependence of the dark spot sizes found for the defect with m = +1. Two different sizes appear and they are comparable to d shown by the dashed line.
