Biaxial Nematic Droplets and their Optical Textures: A Lattice Model Computer Simulation Study

ABSTRACT Monte Carlo simulations of polarizing microscope textures for confined nematic droplets are presented. We consider uniaxial and biaxial cases with various boundary conditions and different values of the molecular biaxiality. The analysis of these optical textures should be of interest in assigning and characterizing biaxial nematic system, an issue of great current interest