The propagation of disclination in pi-cell

Abstract

The disclination in pi-cell was studied. The boundary-layer model gives a simple expression on the energy difference between the bend/splay states. The disclination motion is determined by the energy difference and the damping factor. It was shown theoretically that (1) the disclination motion is proportional to the electric field and (2) the symmetric splay state is ten times faster in disclination propagation than the asymmetrical splay. During the zero bias, the twist state exists in switching from the bend back to the splay. Its disclination velocity is negligibly small.