Nematic-isotropic phase transitions in thin slabs of liquid crystals with topological defect arrays

We study the nematic-to-isotropic phase transitions in thin slabs of nematic liquid crystals with photopatterned director fields of topological defect arrays at constant heating rates and show that the transition kinetics is significantly impacted by both the heating rate and the topological strengths of these defects. Specifically, with ±1/2 defect arrays, the isotropic domains emerge from the defect cores when the heating rate is high, while from random places when the heating rate is low. With ±1 defect arrays, the isotropic domains always emerge from the defect cores regardless of the heating rate. Furthermore, the isotropic domains show significant movements at slow heating rates, and the total area of the isotropic domains grows with the temperature T following a simple power law (T − T′)^γ, where the exponent γ is approximately 1 in most cases and is 2/3 for the ±1 defect arrays at low heating rates when the isotropic domains are pinned on the defect cores. We attribute this phenomenon to an interplay between the surface tension and bulk free energy.