First-order breaking transition of tilted nematic anchoring

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Abstract
We propose a mechanism for breaking tilted nematic anchorings using an electric field normal to the plates. This breaking is a discontinuous first-order transition, unlike the known second-order breaking of planar anchorings. The elastic coupling of the tilted orientations on both plates is used to initialize the first-order transition. We observe the breaking experimentally by fast (in the μs range) bulk texture changes, resulting in an additional π twist in the final state.

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