Theory of nematic–smectic phase separation in thin twisted liquid crystal cells

Osipov, Mikhail A.; Sambles, J. R.; Ruan, Lizhen

doi:10.1080/0267829031000111450

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Extensive studies have been performed for the isotropic-nematic interface, which has been accessed by experiment, computer simulation, and theory (see, for example, Refs. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]), but there are fewer considerations of the isotropic-smectic [33][34][35][36] and the nematic-smectic interface [37]. However, to the best of our knowledge there is no investigation of an interface, where one of the coexisting phases is plastic or fully crystalline.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structure and dynamics of interfaces between two coexisting liquid-crystalline phases

et al. 2013

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A phase-field-crystal model is used to access the structure and thermodynamics of interfaces between two coexisting liquid-crystalline phases in two spatial dimensions. Depending on the model parameters, there is a variety of possible coexistences between two liquid-crystalline phases, including a plastic triangular crystal (PTC). Here, we numerically calculate the profiles for the mean density and for the nematic order tensor across the interface for isotropic-PTC and columnar-PTC (or equivalently smectic-A-PTC) phase coexistence. As a general finding, the width of the interface with respect to the nematic order parameter characterizing the orientational order is larger than the width of the mean-density interface. In approaching the interface from the PTC side, at first, the mean density goes down, and then the nematic order parameter follows. The relative shift in the two profiles can be larger than a full lattice constant of the plastic crystal. Finally, we also present numerical results for the dynamic relaxation of an initial order-parameter profile towards its equilibrium interfacial profile. Our predictions for the interfacial profiles can, in principle, be verified in real-space experiments of colloidal dispersions.

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