Nematic Liquid Crystal Locking Menisci

Abstract

We study meniscus driven locking of point defects of nematic liquid crystals confined within a cylindrical tube with free ends. Curvilinear coordinate system is introduced in order to focus on the phenomena of both (convex and concave) types of menisci. Frank's description in terms of the nematic director field is used. The resulting Euler-Lagrange differential equation is solved numerically. We determine conditions for the defects to be trapped by the meniscus.