Soft-mode turbulence in electrohydrodynamic convection of a homeotropically aligned nematic layer

Abstract

The experimental study of electroconvection in a homeotropically aligned nematic ~MBBA! is reported. Thesystem undergoes a supercritical bifurcation ‘‘rest state-spatiotemporal chaos.’’ The chaos is caused by longwavelengthmodulation of the orientation of convective rolls. For the first time the observations both below andbeyond the Lifshitz point are accompanied by quantitative analysis of temporal autocorrelation functions ofturbulent modes. The dependence of the correlation time on the control parameter is obtained. A secondarybifurcation from normal to abnormal rolls is discussed