Nature of thermally excited vortical flow in a microsized nematic volume.

Abstract

The theoretical description of the reorientational dynamics in the case of a hybrid-oriented two-dimensional (2D) liquid crystal (LC) cell, under the influence of a temperature gradient ∇T, caused by a heat flux q directed at an angle α across the lower bounding surface with the orientational defect, has been presented. Our calculations, based on the appropriate nonlinear extension of the classical Ericksen-Leslie theory, show that due to interaction between ∇T and the gradient of the director field ∇n[over ̂] in the LC sample a thermally excited vortical fluid flow is maintained in the bulk of the nematic volume. In order to elucidate the role of both the orientational defect and the heat flux q in formation of the vortical flow in the microsized LC volume, we have analyzed the response of the LC material confined in the microsized 2D volume on the effect of the laser beam focused on the bounding surface.