Related papers: Stabilising the Blue Phases
We study the static properties of cubic blue phases by numerically minimising the three-dimensional, Landau-de Gennes free energy for a cholesteric liquid crystal close to the isotropic-cholesteric phase transition. Thus we are able to…
New theoretical approaches have been developed for studying and quantitatively describing the elastic properties of cubic blue phases in cholesteric liquid crystals. Within the framework of the Landau-de Gennes theory, using the simplest…
We review recent numerical work investigating the equilibrium phase diagram, and the dynamics, of the cholesteric blue phases. In equilibrium numerical results confirm the predictions of the classic analytical theories, and extend them to…
We describe the occurence and properties of liquid crystal phases showing two dimensional splay and bend distortions which are stabilised by flexoelectric interactions. These phases are characterised by regions of locally double splayed…
We show theoretically that flexoelectricity stabilizes blue phases in chiral liquid crystals. Induced internal polarization reduces the elastic energy cost of splay and bend deformations surrounding singular lines in the director field. The…
A statistical theory of cholesteric liquid crystals composed of short rigid biaxial molecules is presented. It is derived in the thermodynamic limit at a small density and a small twist. The uniaxial (biaxial) cholesteric phase is regarded…
A new theoretical approach has been developed to describe the elastic properties of cubic blue phases of cholesteric liquid crystals (LCs). Blue phases are three-dimensional periodic chiral liquids with local anisotropy of the average…
The phase-field-crystal model for liquid crystals is solved numerically in two spatial dimensions. This model is formulated with three position-dependent order parameters, namely the reduced translational density, the local nematic order…
Blue phases of cholesteric liquid crystals offer a spectacular example of naturally occurring disclination line networks. Here we numerically solve the hydrodynamic equations of motion to investigate the response of three types of blue…
Elastic moduli of liquid crystals, known as Frank constants, are of quintessential importance for understanding fundamental properties of these materials and for the design of their applications. Although there are many methods to measure…
The blue phases are observed in highly chiral liquid crystalline compositions that nascently organize into a three-dimensional, crystalline nanostructure. The periodicity of the unit cell lattice parameters is on the order of the wavelength…
We consider a four-elastic-constant Landau-de Gennes energy characterizing nematic liquid crystal configurations described using the $Q$-tensor formalism. The energy contains a cubic term and is unbounded from below. We study dynamical…
We have written expressions for the free energy of a cholesteric liquid crystal in an approximation using the elasticity constants K_1, K_2, K_3 and the energy variation and the corresponding energy and energy gradient along the direction…
We present extensive numerical studies to determine the phase diagrams of cubic and hexagonal blue phases in an electric field. We confirm the earlier prediction that hexagonal phases, both 2 and 3 dimensional, are stabilized by a field,…
Based on dynamic renormalization group techniques, this letter analyzes the effects of external stochastic perturbations on the dynamical properties of cholesteric liquid crystals, studied in presence of a random magnetic field. Our…
We present a rigorous mathematical analysis of a modified Landau-de Gennes (LdG) theory modeling temperature-driven phase transitions between cholesteric, helical smectic, and smectic C* phases. This model couples a tensor-valued order…
We consider the two-dimensional Landau-de Gennes energy with several elastic constants, subject to general $k$-radially symmetric boundary conditions. We show that for generic elastic constants the critical points consistent with the…
It is shown that curved and flat helical double twisted liquid crystal (DTLC) in blue phase, can be unstable (stable) depending of the sign, negative (positive) of sectional curvature, depending on the pitch of the helix of the nematic…
We explore the rheology and flow-induced morphological changes of cholesteric liquid crystal patterns subject to Poiseuille flow within a slab geometry, and under different anchoring conditions at the wall. Our focus is particularly on the…
Within the framework of the generalized Landau-de Gennes theory, we identify a $Q$-tensor-based energy that reduces to the four-constant Oseen-Frank energy when it is considered over orientable uniaxial nematic states. Although the commonly…