Chiral structures and defects of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals induced by saddle-splay elasticity
Soft Condensed Matter
2015-07-16 v2
Abstract
An experimental and theoretical study of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs) confined in cylinders with degenerate planar boundary conditions elucidates LCLC director configurations. When the Frank saddle-splay modulus is more than twice the twist modulus, the ground state adopts an inhomogeneous escaped-twisted configuration. Analysis of the configuration yields a large saddle-splay modulus, which violates Ericksen inequalities but not thermodynamic stability. Lastly, we observe point defects between opposite-handed domains and explain a preference for point defects over domain walls.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1504.03619,
title = {Chiral structures and defects of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals induced by saddle-splay elasticity},
author = {Zoey S. Davidson and Louis Kang and Joonwoo Jeong and Tim Still and Peter J. Collings and Tom C. Lubensky and A. G. Yodh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.03619},
year = {2015}
}