Coarsening of reverse tilt domains in liquid-crystal cells with heterogeneous alignment layers

When an electric field above the Freedericksz threshold is applied to a nem atic liquid crystal in a cell with heterogeneous alignment layers, the syst em exhibits reverse tilt domains. Over a time scale of seconds to minutes, the disordered domain pattern coarsens into a uniform texture. Analysis of the coarsening dynamics shows that the characteristic length scale L grows with time t as L similar to (log t)(4). This scaling is consistent with pre dictions of the random-bond Ising model, in which randomness in the Ising b ond strength represents heterogeneity in the alignment layers.