Daniel Beller and I have developed an open-source GPU-accelerated simulation platform for the phenomenological Landau-de Gennes Q-tensor approach to modeling liquid crystals, tied together in a graphical user interface. The current implementation is a numerical finite-difference relaxation technique which tries to minimize contributions from a nematic phase term, distortion (gradient) terms, and a variety of possible surface anchoring terms. See the video for a short demonstration, or checkout our documentation page for more details!

Graphical user interface In designing this package we targeted complementary goals of having an easy-to-use graphical user interface (both for educational purposes and to enable rapid prototyping of boundary conditions, interfacial features, and the defect states they can promote.

Micron-scale patterning of complex defect configurations Simulataneously we wanted to be able to simulate large simulation domains of experimental interest. We make use of efficent, multi-core CPU and multi-GPU operation modes to scale up to systems at the supra-micron scale. Currently, our largest simulation involved over 15 billion lattice sites in a parameter regime corresponding to roughly 1400 cubic microns (using LdG parameters commonly used to model 5CB)