Nematic order and phase transition dynamics under intense electric fields

Electrically induced order variations, occurring in the microseconds timescale, in nematic liquid crystals are framed within the Landau-de Gennes Q-tensor theory. We provide a numerical model implemented with a moving meshfinite element method and describe the order dynamics in a symmetric π-cell subjected to very strong electric fields. Our simulations put in evidence bulk order reconstruction delocalisation and transient order lowering phenomenainduced by intense applied electric fields, as well as first and second order characteristics of the splay – bendtransition.