Topological Formations in Chiral Nematic Droplets

Posnjak, Gregor

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-98261-8

Cited by 4 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 161 publications

(355 reference statements)

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“…Figure 1(c), (d) show the results of simulations initialised using (2), or its negative (h), throughout the central portion of the droplet and a radial profile outside. The correspondence with experimental observations [19][20][21] is striking, Fig. 1(f), (g) and (j).…”

Section: Chiral Point Defectssupporting

confidence: 82%

“…(4) The correspondence between this local model and experimental observations [20,21] is striking ( Fig. 2(a), (c)), although we find in our simplified director-based simulations that the defect is unstable and breaks apart into two degree −1 defects, each with the Morse-type local structure described above.…”

Section: Singularity Theory and Defects Of Higher Degreesupporting

confidence: 65%

“…In the experiments of Refs. [20,21], typical values were 2 N 6; in the simulations shown here we use values between 2 and 4. We consider a spherical droplet with normal anchoring boundary conditions that has only point defects in the interior.…”

Section: Cholestericsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The character of point defects in cholesteric liquid crystals (or magnetic Skyrmion textures) appears not to have been considered previously, apart from recent experimental work realising them [19][20][21]. This contrasts with the situation in nematics where point defects, known colloquially as hedgehogs, have been extensively studied over several decades [2][3][4][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent experiments [19][20][21] point defects were created in spherical droplets of cholesteric liquid crystal with normal surface anchoring and shown to have markedly different properties from their nematic counterparts. Whereas spherical nematic droplets relax to a state of minimal distortion with a single defect of degree +1 near the centre and an approximately radial texture [26], a diverse variety of different states were found in the cholesteric case.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Point Defects, Topological Chirality, and Singularity Theory in Cholesteric Liquid-Crystal Droplets

Pollard¹,

Posnjak²,

Alexander³

et al. 2019

Phys. Rev. X

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We develop a theory of point defects in cholesterics and textures in spherical droplets with normal anchoring. The local structure of chiral defects is described by singularity theory and a smecticlike gradient field establishing a nexus between cholesterics and smectics mediated by their defects. We identify the defects of degree −2 and −3 observed experimentally with the singularities D − 4 and T4,4,4, respectively. Radial point defects typical of nematics cannot be perturbed into chiral structures with a single handedness by general topological considerations. For the same reasons, the spherical surface frustrates the chirality in a surface boundary layer containing regions of both handedness.arXiv:1808.03492v1 [cond-mat.soft]

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Topological Formations in Chiral Nematic Droplets

Cited by 4 publications

References 161 publications

Point Defects, Topological Chirality, and Singularity Theory in Cholesteric Liquid-Crystal Droplets

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