Peacock T. & Mullin T.
International Journal of Bifurcations and Chaos, 9, 427-441 (1999)
Results are presented of an experimental investigation of cellular flows in a nematic liquid crystal cell with physical dimensions comparable to the thickness of a human hair. Finite geometry effects have been exploited to investigate detailed bifurcation events which combine to give complicated flows in some parameter regimes. Initially observed flows consist of either six or eight convection cells which possess maximum symmetry consistent with the boundary conditions. These states undergo symmetry-breaking and Hopf bifurcations as the control parameter is continuously changed and interactions of the critical events are found to generate Silnikov dynamics. At stronger forcing it is possible to obtain both ordered fluid motion, consisting of square convection cells, and microturbulence.