Issue 41, 2014

Topological defects in cholesteric liquid crystals induced by monolayer domains with orientational chirality

Abstract

Unless stabilized by colloids or confinement with well-defined boundary conditions, defects in liquid crystals remain elusive short-lived objects that tend to disappear with time to minimize the medium's free energy. In this work we use multimodal three-dimensional imaging to visualize cholesteric director structures to show that self-assembled chiral molecular monolayer domains can stabilize topologically constrained defect configurations when in contact with a cholesteric liquid crystal. The cholesteric liquid crystal, having features of both coarse-grained lamellar and nematic liquid crystal with chiral symmetry breaking, allows us to explore the interplay of chirality and implications of layering on the formed defects and director configurations.

Graphical abstract: Topological defects in cholesteric liquid crystals induced by monolayer domains with orientational chirality

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
22 Apr 2014
Accepted
28 May 2014
First published
28 May 2014

Soft Matter, 2014,10, 8163-8170

Topological defects in cholesteric liquid crystals induced by monolayer domains with orientational chirality

N. Petit-Garrido, R. P. Trivedi, F. Sagués, J. Ignés-Mullol and I. I. Smalyukh, Soft Matter, 2014, 10, 8163 DOI: 10.1039/C4SM00872C

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