Fig. 5.

Nucleation and growth of tilt-gradient linesas monolayers ‘heal’ after C-torque is removed. (a) Upon removing the external torque (0 min), elongated domains begin to retract and widen. Regularly spaced invaginations (yellow boxes) begin to appear along the concave side of extended domains approximately 11 minutes after torque removal, which grow as the monolayer relaxes (11–30 minutes). (b) Magnified images of yellow boxes, with new lines highlighted in yellow. (c) The spacing between neighboring defect lines is sharply peaked at 5.9 ± 1.4 µm.