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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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THE SCHOOL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Under the provisions of the regulations for the degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
on Monday, January 9, 2017
2:00 PM
in MRDC 3515
will be held the
DISSERTATION DEFENSE
for
Karthik Nayani
"Role of surface-like elastic constants in confined nematics"
Committee Members:
Dr. Mohan Srinivasarao, Advisor, MSE
Dr. Alberto Fernandez-Nieves, PHYS
Dr. Jung Ok Park, MSE
Dr. Anselm C. Griffin, MSE
Dr. Paul M. Goldbart, PHYS
Abstract:
Confined nematics are a natural setting to study aspects relating to phenomenology of symmetry breaking, evolution and dynamics of topological defects. In this study we highlight the interplay of the surface-like elastic constants with the phenomenology mentioned above. We exploit nematics confined to cylinders to study a spontaneous reflection symmetry breaking phase transition. The role of saddle-splay elasticity in driving this transition is described in detail. Further, we explore the dynamics of the novel defect configurations thus created. We uncover surprising aspects regarding the scaling of surface-like elastic constants by studying morphological transitions of spherical nematic droplets. We also confine nematics to rectangular geometries which reveal novel director and defect configurations. We exploit a monodomain- like configuration and the director arrangement in tactoids to shed light on the physics governing the nematic- biphasic transition of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals. We also confine nematics to toroidal geometries with radial anchoring to delineate the coupling of geometry and topology with the director configuration. Finally, the role of differential polarizability is demonstrated in the accurate determination of order parameters of liquid crystals.
