Coarsening Dynamics in Nematic Liquid Crystals

There is considerable interest in the dynamics of topological defects formed during a symmetry breaking phase transition in fields as diverse as condensed matter physics, particle physics and cosmology. Liquid crystals, with their many symmetry breaking phase transitions are ideal materials for such studies. Here we report on light transmission studies of the coarsening of three-dimensional defect tangles in uniaxial nematic liquid crystals subjected to a sudden pressure jump from the isotropic phase to the nematic phase. We have verified that the type 1/2 disclination line density, as a function of time, scales as t^−v with v = 1.0 ± 0.1 over four decades in time. The transmitted light intensity exhibits two distinct scaling regimes depending on whether propagation without scattering or diffusive propagation with multiple scattering dominates the light reaching the detector.