319 research outputs found
Nonstandard electroconvection in a bent-core oxadiazole material
Electroconvection (EC) phenomena have been investigated in the nematic phase of a bent-core oxadiazole material with negative dielectric anisotropy and a frequency dependent conductivity anisotropy. The formation of longitudinal roll (LR) patterns is one of the predominant features observed in the complete frequency and voltage range studied. At voltages much above the LR threshold, various complex patterns such as the "crisscrossed" pattern, bimodal varicose, and turbulence are observed. Unusually, the nonstandard EC (ns-EC) instability in this material, is observed in a regime in which we measure the dielectric and conductivity anisotropies to be negative and positive respectively. A further significant observation is that the EC displays distinct features in the high and low temperature regimes of the nematic phase, supporting an earlier report that EC patterns could distinguish between regions that have been reported as uniaxial and biaxial nematic phases
Phase Transition between the Cholesteric and Twist Grain Boundary C Phases
The upper critical temperature Tc2 for the phase transition between the
Cholesteric phase (N*) and the Twist Grain Boundary C phase with the layer
inclination tilted to the pitch axis (TGBct) in thermotropic liquid crystals is
determined by the mean field Chen-Lubensky approach. We show that the N*-TGBct
phase transition is split in two with the appearance of either the TGBA or the
TGB2q phase in a narrow temperature interval below Tc2. The latter phase is
novel in being superposed from two degenerate
TGBct phases with different (left and right) layers inclinations to the pitch
axis.Comment: Phys. Rev. E, to be publ; 24 pages, RevTeX + 3 ps figure
Tilt order parameters, polarity and inversion phenomena in smectic liquid crystals
The order parameters for the phenomenological description of the smectic-{\it
A} to smectic-{\it C} phase transition are formulated on the basis of molecular
symmetry and structure. It is shown that, unless the long molecular axis is an
axis of two-fold or higher rotational symmetry, the ordering of the molecules
in the smectic-{\it C} phase gives rise to more than one tilt order parameter
and to one or more polar order parameters. The latter describe the indigenous
polarity of the smectic-{\it C} phase, which is not related to molecular
chirality but underlies the appearance of spontaneous polarisation in chiral
smectics. A phenomenological theory of the phase transition is formulated by
means of a Landau expansion in two tilt order parameters (primary and
secondary) and an indigenous polarity order parameter. The coupling among these
order parameters determines the possibility of sign inversions in the
temperature dependence of the spontaneous polarisation and of the helical pitch
observed experimentally for some chiral smectic-{\it } materials. The
molecular interpretation of the inversion phenomena is examined in the light of
the new formulation.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, RevTe
Optical waveguide characterization of a tristable antiferroelectric liquid crystal cell
Copyright © 2004 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 95 (2004) and may be found at http://link.aip.org/link/?JAPIAU/95/2246/1The optical convergent-beam waveguide technique has been used to characterize a homogeneously aligned 3 ”m cell containing a liquid crystal in the antiferroelectric phase. The director structure has been quantified with the cell at 0 V and at ±50 V dc, and three distinct states have been observed. From the optical data collected, it is found that the material forms a tilted-bookshelf ferroelectric structure in the presence of a suitable voltage, and the characteristic alternating (anticlinic) structure of the antiferroelectric phase when the cell is short-circuited. The biaxiality of the antiferroelectric state has been measured, and (approximately) uniaxial refractive indices, the cone angle, and layer tilt have been determined for the ferroelectric state
Order and Frustration in Chiral Liquid Crystals
This paper reviews the complex ordered structures induced by chirality in
liquid crystals. In general, chirality favors a twist in the orientation of
liquid-crystal molecules. In some cases, as in the cholesteric phase, this
favored twist can be achieved without any defects. More often, the favored
twist competes with applied electric or magnetic fields or with geometric
constraints, leading to frustration. In response to this frustration, the
system develops ordered structures with periodic arrays of defects. The
simplest example of such a structure is the lattice of domains and domain walls
in a cholesteric phase under a magnetic field. More complex examples include
defect structures formed in two-dimensional films of chiral liquid crystals.
The same considerations of chirality and defects apply to three-dimensional
structures, such as the twist-grain-boundary and moire phases.Comment: 39 pages, RevTeX, 14 included eps figure
Topological Defects and Interactions in Nematic Emulsions
Inverse nematic emulsions in which surfactant-coated water droplets are
dispersed in a nematic host fluid have distinctive properties that set them
apart from dispersions of two isotropic fluids or of nematic droplets in an
isotropic fluid. We present a comprehensive theoretical study of the
distortions produced in the nematic host by the dispersed droplets and of
solvent mediated dipolar interactions between droplets that lead to their
experimentally observed chaining. A single droplet in a nematic host acts like
a macroscopic hedgehog defect. Global boundary conditions force the nucleation
of compensating topological defects in the nematic host. Using variational
techniques, we show that in the lowest energy configuration, a single water
droplet draws a single hedgehog out of the nematic host to form a tightly bound
dipole. Configurations in which the water droplet is encircled by a
disclination ring have higher energy. The droplet-dipole induces distortions in
the nematic host that lead to an effective dipole-dipole interaction between
droplets and hence to chaining.Comment: 17 double column pages prepared by RevTex, 15 eps figures included in
text, 2 gif figures for Fig. 1
Flexoelectricity in an oxadiazole bent-core nematic liquid crystal
We have determined experimentally the magnitude of the difference in the splay and bend flexoelectric coefficients, |e1 - e3|, of an oxadiazole bent-core liquid crystal by measuring the critical voltage for the formation of flexodomains together with their wave number. The coefficient |e1 - e3| is found to be a factor of 2-3 times higher than in most conventional calamitic nematic liquid crystals, varying from 8 pCm-1 to 20 pCm-1 across the âŒ60 K - wide nematic regime. We have also calculated the individual flexoelectric coefficients e1 and e3, with the dipolar and quadrupolar contributions of the bent-core liquid crystal by combining density functional theory calculations with a molecular field approach and atomistic modelling. Interestingly, the magnitude of the bend flexoelectric coefficient is found to be rather small, in contrast to common expectations for bent-core molecules. The calculations are in excellent agreement with the experimental values, offering an insight into how molecular parameters contribute to the flexoelectric coefficients and illustrating a huge potential for the prediction of flexoelectric behaviour in bent-core liquid crystals
Ferroelectric ordering in chiral smectic C^* liquid crystals determined by nonchiral intermolecular interactions
General microscopic mechanism of ferroelectric ordering in chiral smectic C*
liquid crystals is considered. It is shown that if the mesogenic molecules have
a sufficiently low symmetry, the spontaneous polarization is proportional to
one of the biaxial vector order parameters of the smectic C phase. This order
parameter may be determined by intermolecular interactions which are not
sensitive to molecular chirality. At the same time, the polarization is also
proportional to a pseudoscalar parameter which vanishes if the molecules are
nonchiral. The general statistical theory of ferroelectric ordering is
illustrated by two particular models. The first model is based on electrostatic
quadrupole-quadrupole interactions, and it enables one to obtain explicit
analytical expressions for the spontaneous polarization. In the second model,
the molecular chirality and polarity are determined by a pair of off-center
nonparallel dipoles. For this case, the spontaneous polarization is calculated
numerically as a function of temperature. The theory provides a more general
interpretation of the previous approaches including the classical Boulder
model
Defects in Chiral Columnar Phases: Tilt Grain Boundaries and Iterated Moire Maps
Biomolecules are often very long with a definite chirality. DNA, xanthan and
poly-gamma-benzyl-glutamate (PBLG) can all form columnar crystalline phases.
The chirality, however, competes with the tendency for crystalline order. For
chiral polymers, there are two sorts of chirality: the first describes the
usual cholesteric-like twist of the local director around a pitch axis, while
the second favors the rotation of the local bond-orientational order and leads
to a braiding of the polymers along an average direction. In the former case
chirality can be manifested in a tilt grain boundary phase (TGB) analogous to
the Renn-Lubensky phase of smectic-A liquid crystals. In the latter case we are
led to a new "moire" state with twisted bond order. In the moire state polymers
are simultaneously entangled, crystalline, and aligned, on average, in a common
direction. In the moire state polymers are simultaneously entangled,
crystalline, and aligned, on average, in a common direction. In this case the
polymer trajectories in the plane perpendicular to their average direction are
described by iterated moire maps of remarkable complexity, reminiscent of
dynamical systems.Comment: plain TeX, (33 pages), 17 figures, some uufiled and included, the
remaining available at ftp://ftp.sns.ias.edu/pub/kamien/ or by request to
[email protected]
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