Spatially periodic structures in nematic liquid crystals usually appear as the initial response to a suddenly applied reorienting field. To account for the significant discrepancy between the measured periodicity and the periodicity calculated from a linear instability analysis we derived nonlinear equations of motion and solved them numerically. Our results agree well with the observed wavelength. We propose a novel mechanism responsible for the final wavelength selection.

• Received 3 October 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.39.4828