Decoration of disclinations by solidification-induced band texture and focal-conic texture for a low-molar-mass liquid crystal

Two decoration techniques, solidification-induced band texture decora tion and focal-conictexture decoration, have been established to exhibit the director field of disclinations in a low-molar-mass methacrylate liquid crystal. The disclinations with strength s = 1/2 and s = ±1 are observed by the two decor ation methods. For the solidification-induced band texture decoration, the molecular orientation is perpendicular to the direction of the band. While for focal- conictexture decoration, it has been proved by the results of IR dichroism that the direction of the director is parallel to the direction of the focal-conic. Therefore, the sketch map of the molecular director filed can be mapped according to the morphological pattern of the solidification-induced band textureor focal-conic texture.