Abstract
Langmuir monolayers of an azobenzene fatty acid derivative have been studied experimentally in a regime where confined domains with Smectic-C order form spontaneously. Coalescence of domains results in a dynamics of formation and annihilation of point defects and string-like distortions of the molecular field amenable to semi-quantitative analysis. Absence of backflow and layer thickness effects enables us to extract values for material parameters from the analysis of defect dynamics.
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Vallvé, M.À., Ignés-Mullol, J. Dynamics of point defects and stripe textures in Smectic-C Langmuir monolayers. Eur. Phys. J. E 30, 403 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2009-10539-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2009-10539-x