Experimental Study of the Growth of the Cholesteric Finger Pattern

Abstract

The growth process of the cholesteric finger pattern, appearing in a large pitch cholesteric liquid crystal sandwiched between glass plates, has been experimentally investigated. Depending on the cell gap and the external electric field, several patterns of different kinds are observed. The characteristic feature of the patterns is extracted from the observed image and then the dynamical behavior of the patterns is discussed. Moreover, the formation process of the dendritic finger pattern is analyzed on the basis of the Avrami model.