On the deflection of light by topological defects in nematic liquid crystals

TL;DR

This paper models how temperature and wavelength affect light deflection around topological defects in nematic liquid crystals, showing greater deflection at lower temperatures and shorter wavelengths.

Contribution

It introduces a geometric model that incorporates phenomenological dependencies of refractive indices on temperature and wavelength for nematic liquid crystals with topological defects.

Findings

Deflection increases at lower temperatures.

Shorter wavelengths cause greater deflection.

Model aligns with experimental observations.

Abstract

The influence of controlable parameters like temperature and wavelength on the trajectories of light in a nematic liquid crystal with topological defects is studied through a geometric model. The model incorporates phenomenological details as how the refractive indices depend on such parameters. The deflection of light by the topological defect is then shown to be greater at lower temperatures and shorter wavelengths.