Romero-Enrique, José ManuelPham, Chi-TuongPatricio, Pedro2011-11-282011-11-282010-07-16Romer-Enrique J M, Pham C, Patrício P. Scaling of the elastic contribution to the surface free energy of a nematic liquid crystal on a sawtoothed substrate.Physical Review E. 2010; 82 (1): Art. No. 011707 Part 1.1539-3755http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/671We characterize the elastic contribution to the surface free energy of a nematic liquid crystal in the presence of a sawtooth substrate. Our findings are based on numerical minimization of the Landau-de Gennes model and analytical calculations on the Frank-Oseen theory. The nucleation of disclination lines (characterized by non-half-integer winding numbers) in the wedges and apexes of the substrate induces a leading order proportional to q ln q to the elastic contribution to the surface free-energy density, with q being the wave number associated with the substrate periodicity.engPhase-TransitionsAlignmentOrientationDefectsSamplesFilmsLayerjournal article