Effect of the anisotropic surface tension, crystallization kinetics, and heat diffusion on nonequilibrium growth of liquid crystals

The morphologies of a homeotropic smectic-B germ growing into an undercooled homeotropic or planar nematic melt were studied. The two sets of growth shapes observed in the experiment were reproduced by computer simulations using a phase-field model. From the comparison of the experiment and numerical simulations we give an estimate for the anisotropy of the surface tension and the kinetic coefficient for the case of the homeotropic nematic melt. In the case of the planarly aligned melt the twofold anisotropy of the nematic superimposes onto the hexagonal symmetry of the smectic B. An explanation of the phenomenon of the ''inverted growth'' is given. [S1063-651X(98)09511-7].