Phys. Rev. E 74, 021711 (2006) [18 pages]Nematic textures in spherical shellsReceived 5 April 2006; published 29 August 2006 The equilibrium texture of nematic shells is studied as a function of their thickness. For ultrathin shells the ground state has four short 1/2 disclination lines but, as the thickness of the film increases, a three-dimensional escaped configuration composed of two pairs of half-hedgehogs becomes energetically favorable. We derive an exact solution for the nematic ground state in the one Frank constant approximation and study the stability of the corresponding texture against thermal fluctuations. © 2006 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.74.021711
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.74.021711
PACS:
61.30.Jf, 61.30.Dk, 61.30.Hn, 61.30.Pq
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