Surface and bulk contributions to nematic order reconstruction

Nematic molecules confined in an asymmetric π cell and subjected to strong electric fields exhibit texturaldistortions involving nematic order variations, described by the Landau-de Gennes Q-tensor theory. Weinvestigated the evolution of order variations as function of the applied electric pulse amplitude and of thenematic surface pretilt anchoring angles by implementing a Q-tensor model with a moving mesh finite elementmethod. The proposed technique is able to clearly distinguish the bulk and the surface order reconstruction whichoccur in the cell.