New quasiperiodic structures in nematic liquid crystals

Melnyk, O., Jones, R., Macêdo, R. and Camley, R. E. (2023) New quasiperiodic structures in nematic liquid crystals. Soft Matter, 19, pp. 7644-7654. (doi: 10.1039/D3SM00884C) (PMID:37779452)

Abstract

Liquid crystal molecules tend to align with each other, often forming regions of opposite alignment that meet at a boundary—topological defects. These often offer information on configuration of the liquid crystal molecules with competing constraints on their order. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a mechanism to generate topological defects in the form of spatially oscillatory domain walls in nematic liquid crystals. We initially orient the molecules perpendicular to the substrate (i.e. homeotropic alignment) and when a horizontal electric field is applied, domain walls that change their shape with time emerge. These walls form at low frequencies of the applied electric field and remain stable as the frequency increases. If the initial biasing field is at larger frequencies (kHz regime), the domain walls still form, but are not oscillatory. We develop a general theory to predict the three-dimensional liquid crystal director evolution in any two-dimensional varying field. This theory gives the time dependence for the domain walls and confirms that both the oscillatory and straight walls are stable.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the UCCS BioFrontiers Center, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Macedo, Dr Rair

Creator Roles

Macedo, R.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review and editing, Supervision

• Authors: Melnyk, O., Jones, R., Macêdo, R., and Camley, R. E.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering
• Journal Name: Soft Matter
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• ISSN: 1744-683X
• ISSN (Online): 1744-6848
• Copyright Holders: Copyright: © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2023
• First Published: First published in Soft Matter 19: 7644-7654
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy