We have studied the behavior of a liquid crystalline elastomer undergo
ing a polydomain-monodomain transition. The textures emerging under in
creasing extensional load have been examined with a combination of opt
ical microscopy, X-ray, and small-angle polarized light scattering. Th
e experimental data are interpreted in terms of reorientation of the l
ocal director with increasing extension. The results of this combinati
on of techniques at low extensions are consistent with a two-dimension
ally periodic director texture. The amplitude of this modulation decre
ases continuously as the mesogens are pulled into the extensional dire
ction at high loads. In this manner the samples which are polydomain u
nder no load become essentially monodomain with increasing extension.