Scaling of the elastic contribution to the surface free energy of a nematic on a sawtoothed substrate

Abstract

We characterize the elastic contribution to the surface free energy of a nematic in presence of a sawtooth substrate. Our findings are based on numerical minimization of the Landau-de Gennes model and analytical calculations on the Frank-Oseen theory. The nucleation of disclination lines (characterized by non-half-integer winding numbers) in the wedges and apexes of the substrate induces a leading order proportional to qlnq to the elastic contribution to the surface free energy density, q being the wavenumber associated with the substrate periodicity.