Issue 47, 2013

Spiral layer undulation defects in B7 liquid crystals

Abstract

In bent-core smectic liquid crystal phases, a strong local preference for layering coupled to the bent molecular shape gives rise to two spontaneous symmetry-breaking instabilities, polar orientational ordering of the molecules and molecular tilt, which combine to produce chiral phases. The B7 is one such phase characterized by layer undulations associated with the formation of periodic, polarization-modulation stripes that can be visualized using FFTEM. By analyzing topological defects in the B7 layer undulation texture, we can determine the molecular organization within the layers which indicates that the layers are homochiral. The layer undulations coupled with the layer chirality forms clockwise or anticlockwise spiral patterns as they nucleate and grow.

Graphical abstract: Spiral layer undulation defects in B7 liquid crystals

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Jul 2013
Accepted
17 Oct 2013
First published
28 Oct 2013

Soft Matter, 2013,9, 11303-11308

Spiral layer undulation defects in B7 liquid crystals

D. Chen, D. K. Yoon, J. E. Maclennan, M. A. Glaser, E. Korblova, D. M. Walba, N. Gimeno, M. B. Ros, R. Deb, N. V. S. Rao and N. A. Clark, Soft Matter, 2013, 9, 11303 DOI: 10.1039/C3SM51905H

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