Hydrodynamic Flows in Microsized Liquid Crystal Cells with Orientational Defects

Abstract

The effect of the orientational defect (OD) on the formation process of a vortical flow v(t, r), emerging in a microsized liquid crystal (LC) cell under the action of a focused laser radiation, was studied within the nonlinear generalization of the classical Ericksen–Leslie theory by numerical methods, considering the thermomechanical contributions to both the stress tensor and viscous torque, that acts on the unit volume of the liquid crystal phase (LC phase). The analysis of the obtained results showed that the vortical flow, rotating clockwise, is generated in a “defect” LC cell close to the OD, with the OD, placed on the lower bounding surface, on which the laser radiation was focused. The rotational velocity of this flow is two orders of magnitude greater than the rotational velocity of the vortex, which is generated in a “pure” LC cell at the same conditions and rotates anticlockwise.