Structural Landscapes in Geometrically Frustrated Smectics
Soft Condensed Matter
2021-05-05 v3
Abstract
A phenomenological free energy model is proposed to describe the behavior of smectic liquid crystals, an intermediate phase that exhibits orientational order and layering at the molecular scale. Advantageous properties render the functional amenable to numerical simulation. The model is applied to a number of scenarios involving geometric frustration, leading to emergent structures such as focal conic domains and oily streaks and enabling detailed elucidation of the very rich energy landscapes that arise in these problems.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2102.00129,
title = {Structural Landscapes in Geometrically Frustrated Smectics},
author = {Jingmin Xia and Scott MacLachlan and Timothy J. Atherton and Patrick E. Farrell},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.00129},
year = {2021}
}