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For isotropic fluids, classical nucleation theory predicts the nucleationrate, barrier height and critical droplet size by accounting for thecompetition between bulk energy and interfacial tension. The nucleation processin liquid crystals is less understood. We numerically investigate nucleation inmonolayered nematogenic films using a mesoscopic framework, in particular, westudy the mor- phology and kinetic pathway in spontaneous formation and growthof droplets of the stable phase in the metastable background. The parameter$\kappa$ that quantifies the anisotropic elastic energy plays a central role indetermining the geometric structure of the droplets. Noncircular nematicdroplets with homogeneous director orientation are nucleated in a background ofsupercooled isotropic phase for small $\kappa$. For large $\kappa$, noncirculardroplets with integer topological charge, accompanied by a biaxial ring at theouter surface, are nucleated. The isotropic droplet shape in a superheatednematic background is found to depend on $\kappa$ in a similar way. Identicalgrowth laws are found in the two cases, although an unusual two-stage mechanismis observed in the nucleation of isotropic droplets. Temporal distributions ofsuccessive events indicate the relevance of long-ranged elasticity-mediatedinteractions within the isotropic domains. Implications for a theoreticaldescription of nucleation in anisotropic fluids are discussed.

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Stochastic kinetics reveal imperative role of anisotropic interfacial  tension to determine morphology and evolution of nucleated droplets in  nematogenic films