Soft Elasticity in Nematic Liquid-Crystal Networks
Soft Condensed Matter
2008-10-09 v2 Statistical Mechanics
Abstract
Liquid-crystal networks consist of weakly crosslinked polymers that are coupled to liquid-crystal molecules. The resultant hybrid system has rich elastic properties. We develop a phase field model to describe mechanical properties of a hexagonal liquid-crystal network. The hexagonal liquid-crystal network is found to have soft shear deformations. The elastic properties are predicted analytically and confirmed with numerical simulations. In addition the model incorporates non-linear elasticity and dislocations or disclinations.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0806.3445,
title = {Soft Elasticity in Nematic Liquid-Crystal Networks},
author = {Simiso K. Mkhonta and Dan Vernon and K. R. Elder and Martin Grant},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0806.3445},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 figures