Experimental confirmation of a Kibble-Zurek scaling law in a nematic liquid crystal

  • Nicholas Fowler

Student thesis: Master of Science by Research

Abstract

Umbilic defects with strength s = ±1 were generated via a Fréedericksz transition in a nematic liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy. The defect density was measured as the rate at which the Fréedericksz transition occurred was varied. A scaling exponent which described how the defect density scaled with the rate at which the Fréedericksz transition occurred was calculated and found to be in good agreement with the theoretically predicted value. To our knowledge, this is possibly the first time that this scaling relationship has been confirmed experimentally in a condensed matter system.
Date of Award1 Aug 2015
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • The University of Manchester
SupervisorJames Warwicker (Supervisor), Samuel De Visser (Supervisor) & Christopher Blanford (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Topological defect formation
  • Liquid crystals
  • Kibble-Zurek mechanism

Cite this

Documents

'