Electrically driven formation and dynamics of swallow-tail solitons in smectic A liquid crystals

Abstract

Electric field driven instabilities of liquid crystals, such as electro-convections, spatiotemporal chaos, backflows, and solitons are of great importance for both fundamental science and practical applications. Here we demonstrate that...

Recent Progresses on Experimental Investigations of Topological and Dissipative Solitons in Liquid Crystals

“…Experimentally, dissipative solitons were generated in the form of electric current filaments in a 2D planar gas-discharge system [98]. In LCs, different kinds of dissipative solitons have been generated and reported recently [99][100][101][102][103][104][105].…”

“…So far, most dynamic solitons have been reported only in nematics. However, recently, it was shown that particle-like dynamic dissipative solitons can be formed in LCs of the fluid smectic A phase [104]. A smectic A phase is characterized by the formation of a layered structure of elongated molecules with orientational and 1D positional order.…”

Temperature reconfigurable skyrmionic solitons in cholesteric liquid crystals

“…6 Liquid crystals are anisotropic fluids with long-range orientational order of elongated molecules defined by the average of the long molecular axis called director, n. The study of solitons in liquid crystals was started in 1968 by Wolfgang Helfrich who theoretically modelled alignment inversion walls as static solitons in an infinite sample of nematic order. 7 Since then, different types of solitons have been reported, including different types of inversion walls, [7][8][9] propagating solitary waves, 10,11 individual convective rolls 12 and local convective domains, 13 discommensurations 14,15 and breathers, 16 nematicons, 17 directrons, 18 swallow-tail solitons 19 and others. In addition, a number of topological solitons, such as skyrmions, torons, hopfions, heliknotons are observed or created in chiral nematic liquid crystals (CNLCs).…”

Generation and Propagation of Flexoelectricity-Induced Solitons in Nematic Liquid Crystals

“…In liquid crystals, three-dimensional solitons are typically observed near surface imperfections, dust particles, or electrode edges, traveling long distnces aperpendicular to the director field. , Initial observations of such solitons were made by P. Cladis and colleagues decades ago. More recently, several research groups − have explored solitons from an experimental perspective, while others have considered various underlying theoretical aspects. − …”