Related papers: Smectic Order in Double-Twist Cylinders
Observing and characterizing the complex ordering phenomena of liquid crystals subjected to external constraints constitutes an ongoing challenge for chemists and physicists alike. To elucidate the delicate balance appearing when the…
The hexatic phase predicted by the theories of two-dimensional melting is characterised by the power law decay of the orientational correlations whereas the in-layer bond orientational order in all the hexatic smectic phases observed so far…
Optical birefringence measurements on a rod-like liquid crystal (8OCB), imbibed in silica channels (7 nm diameter), are presented and compared to the thermotropic bulk behavior. The orientational and positional order of the confined liquid…
Smectic liquid crystals are materials formed by stacking deformable, fluid layers. Though smectics prefer to have flat, uniformly-spaced layers, boundary conditions can impose curvature on the layers. Since the layer spacing and curvature…
The nematic twist-bend ($\mathrm{N_{TB}}$) phase, exhibited by certain thermotropic liquid crystalline (LC) dimers, represents a new orientationally ordered mesophase -- the first distinct nematic variant discovered in many years. The…
We consider a two-dimensional lattice model for liquid crystals consisting of long rods interacting via purely hard core interactions, with two allowed orientations defined by the underlying lattice. We rigorously prove the existence of a…
As in between liquid and crystal phases lies a nematic liquid crystal, which breaks rotation with preservation of translation symmetry, there is a nematic superfluid phase bridging a superfluid and a supersolid. The nematic order also…
Order-disorder transitions take place in many physical systems, but observing them in detail in real materials is difficult. In two- or quasi-two-dimensional systems, the transition has been studied by computer simulations and…
Many physical systems involve two types of orientational order, which are coupled together. For example, ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals have coupled polar and nematic order, and tilted hexatic phases have coupled polar and hexatic…
Resistively-shunted-junction dynamics is applied to the three dimensional uniformly frustrated XY model with randomly perturbed couplings, as a model for driven steady states in a type-II superconductor with quenched point pinning. For a…
A flux liquid can condense into a smectic crystal in a pure layered superconductor with the magnetic field oriented nearly parallel to the layers. Similar order can arise in low temperature $^4$He films with a highly anisotropic periodic…
Frustration is a powerful mechanism in condensed matter systems, driving both order and co plexity. In smectics, the frustration between macroscopic chirality and equally spaced layers generates textures characterised by a proliferation of…
The twist-grain-boundary (TGB) phases, characterized by a periodic, helical arrangement of blocks made of polar smectic phases, SmAF and SmCF, have been discovered. They have been observed for rod-like molecules with a strong longitudinal…
Due to the intertwining between electronic nematic and elastic degrees of freedom, lattice defects and structural inhomogeneities commonly found in crystals can have a significant impact on the electronic properties of nematic materials.…
A plastic crack model for smectic A liquid crystals under longitudinal shear is suggested. The solution of screw dislocation in smectic A is the key in which the correct result is just obtained by overcoming a longstanding puzzle [19]. We…
The theory describing quantum-smectics in 2+1 dimensions, based on topological quantum melting is presented. This is governed by a dislocation condensate characterized by an ordering of Burger's vector and this `dual shear superconductor'…
The nanostructure of two novel sulfur containing dimer materials has been investigated experimentally by hard and by resonant tender X-ray scattering techniques. On cooling the dimers through the nematic to twist-bend nematic (N-NTB) phase…
Smectic materials represent a unique state between fluids and solids, characterized by orientational and partial positional order, making them notoriously difficult to model, particularly in confining geometries. We propose a complex order…
Spin-driven nematicity, or the breaking of the point-group symmetry of the lattice without long-range magnetic order, is clearly quite important in iron-based superconductors. From a symmetry point of view, nematic order can be described as…
Curved particles have been shown to stabilize a range of states with unique order in dense suspensions of colloidal bent core liquid crystals. The shape of the colloidal rods encourages the formation of curved director fields. However,…