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Spontaneous emergence of chirality in achiral lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals confined to cylinders [electronic resource].

Published
Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences, 2015.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Physical Description
Article numbers 8,067 (2,015) : digital, PDF file
Additional Creators
United States. Department of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information
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Summary
Here, the presumed ground state of a nematic fluid confined in a cylindrical geometry with planar anchoring corresponds to that of an axial configuration, wherein the director, free of deformations, is along the long axis of the cylinder. However, upon confinement of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals in cylindrical geometries, here we uncover a surprising ground state corresponding to a doubly twisted director configuration. The stability of this ground state, which involves significant director deformations, can be rationalized by the saddle-splay contribution to the free energy. We show that sufficient anisotropy in the elastic constants drives the transition from a deformation-free ground state to a doubly twisted structure, and results in spontaneous symmetry breaking with equal probability for either handedness. Enabled by the twist angle measurements of the spontaneous twist, we determine the saddlesplay elastic constant for chromonic liquid crystals for the first time.
Report Numbers
E 1.99:1459179
Subject(s)
Note
Published through SciTech Connect.
08/19/2015.
": BFncomms9067"
Nature Communications 6 1 ISSN 2041-1723 AM
Karthik Nayani; Rui Chang; Jinxin Fu; Perry W. Ellis; Alberto Fernandez-Nieves; Jung Ok Park; Mohan Srinivasarao.
Kent State Univ., Kent, OH (United States)
Funding Information
SC0001412
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