Nematic twist-bend phase with nanoscale modulation of molecular orientation

Nematic twist-bend phase with nanoscale modulation of molecular orientation

A state of matter in which molecules show a long-range orientational order and no positional order is called a nematic liquid crystal. The best known and most widely used (for example, in modern displays) is the uniaxial nematic, with the rod-like molecules aligned along a single axis, called the director. When the molecules are chiral, the director twists in space, drawing a right-angle helico...

Hierarchical elasticity of bimesogenic liquid crystals with twist-bend nematic phase

Equilibrium shapes of a twist-bend nematic drop

These notes supplement our paper Interfacial and morphological features of a twist-bend nematic drop, producing a number of analytical details of the mathematical model employed there to interpret the experimental observations of equilibrium shapes of a twist-bend nematic drop in two space dimensions. For the sake of continuity and completeness, some figures and equations are also reproduced here.

Fluctuation modes of a twist-bend nematic liquid crystal

Local distortion energy and coarse-grained elasticity of the twist-bend nematic phase.

The recently discovered twist-bend nematic phase of achiral bent-shaped molecules, NTB, has a doubly degenerate ground-state with a periodically modulated heliconical structure and unusual distortion elasticity, the theoretical description of which is still debated. We show that the NTB phase has the same macroscopic symmetry as another periodic mesophase, the chiral smectic-A, SmA*. Based on t...