Dynamics of point defects and stripe textures in Smectic-C Langmuir monolayers

Langmuir monolayers of an azobenzene fatty acid derivative have been studied experimentally in a regime where confined domains with Smectic-C order form spontaneously. Coalescence of domains results in a dynamics of formation and annihilation of point defects and string-like distortions of the molecular field amenable to semi-quantitative analysis. Absence of backflow and layer thickness effects enables us to extract values for material parameters from the analysis of defect dynamics.