On the possibility of the violation of the Curie-Neumann principle in anisotropic media with dissymmetry

The dynamics of defects and their mutual transformation and annihilation in drops of a nematic-cholesteric mixture in the presence of quasistatic electric fields has been investigated by the birefringence method. Three basic independent configurations of the director distribution—static and dynamic with the right and left-handed twists of cholesteric layers around the axis parallel to the field—are formed above the threshold field. The possible mechanisms of the observed processes have been discussed. It has been shown that a certain symmetry of the causes (the nematic-cholesteric liquid crystal and field) does not necessarily lead to the corresponding symmetry of the induced structures and mechanical processes. An anisotropic distribution of the orientation of rotating spiral structures with respect to the normal to the nematic-cholesteric liquid crystal layer has been revealed.