Search the site

The University of Manchester Library

In April 2016 Manchester eScholar was replaced by the University of Manchester’s new Research Information Management System, Pure. In the autumn the University’s research outputs will be available to search and browse via a new Research Portal. Until then the University’s full publication record can be accessed via a temporary portal and the old eScholar content is available to search and browse via this archive.

Experimental confirmation of a Kibble-Zurek scaling law in a nematic liquid crystal

Fowler, Nicholas

[Thesis]. Manchester, UK: The University of Manchester; 2014.

Access to files

Abstract

Umbilic defects with strength s = ±1 were generated via a Fréedericksz transition in a nematic liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy. The defect density was measured as the rate at which the Fréedericksz transition occurred was varied. A scaling exponent which described how the defect density scaled with the rate at which the Fréedericksz transition occurred was calculated and found to be in good agreement with the theoretically predicted value. To our knowledge, this is possibly the first time that this scaling relationship has been confirmed experimentally in a condensed matter system.

Bibliographic metadata

Type of resource:
Content type:
Administered thesis
Form of thesis:
Traditional
Type of submission:
Doctoral level ETD - final
Thesis title:
Experimental confirmation of a Kibble-Zurek scaling law in a nematic liquid crystal
Degree type:
Master of Science by Research
Degree programme:
MSc by Research Soft Matter and Liquid Crystals Physics
Publication date:
2014-11-20T09:16:43
Institution:
The University of Manchester
Location:
Manchester, UK
Total pages:
90
Abstract:
Umbilic defects with strength s = ±1 were generated via a Fréedericksz transition in a nematic liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy. The defect density was measured as the rate at which the Fréedericksz transition occurred was varied. A scaling exponent which described how the defect density scaled with the rate at which the Fréedericksz transition occurred was calculated and found to be in good agreement with the theoretically predicted value. To our knowledge, this is possibly the first time that this scaling relationship has been confirmed experimentally in a condensed matter system.
Keyword(s):
Thesis main supervisor(s):
Thesis co-supervisor(s):
Degree grantor:
Language:
en

Record metadata

Manchester eScholar ID:
uk-ac-man-scw:240429
Created by:
Fowler, Nicholas
Created:
20th November, 2014, 09:16:43
Last modified by:
Fowler, Nicholas
Last modified:
1st December, 2017, 09:07:29

Can we help?

The library chat service will be available from 11am-3pm Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays). You can also email your enquiry to us.