A generic statistical mechanical model is presented for the self-assembly of chiral rod-like units, such as beta-sheet-forming peptides, into helical tapes, which with increasing concentration associate into twisted ribbons (double tapes), fibrils (twisted stacks of ribbons), and fibers (entwined fibrils). The finite fibril width and helicity is shown to stem from a competition between the free...

Chiral nematic droplets with perpendicular surface alignment of liquid crystalline molecules frustrate the helical structure into convoluted 3D textures with complex topology. We observe the droplets with fluorescent confocal polarising microscopy (FCPM), and reconstruct and analyse for the first time the topology of the 3D director field using a novel method of director reconstruction from raw...

2014 Some electrooptic and thermooptic effects of cholesteric phase are used in liquid crystal visualisation and display systems provided spiral pitch is equal to a visible wavelength or several micrometers. Liquid crystals with cholesteric properties were generally cholesteric esters. Unfortunately these materials are chemically nonstable. More stable nematic liquid crystals twisted by mixing ...

A substrate coated with a polyimide alignment layer is scribed bidirectionally with the stylus of an atomic force microscope to create an easy axis for liquid-crystal orientation. The resulting noncentrosymmetric topography breaks two-dimensional inversion symmetry and results in a spatial amplitude modulation of an imposed twisted nematic state. This is observed optically as spatially periodic...

We study chiral symmetry-broken configurations of nematic liquid crystals (LCs) confined to cylindrical capillaries with homeotropic anchoring on the cylinder walls (i.e., perpendicular surface alignment). Interestingly, achiral nematic LCs with comparatively small twist elastic moduli relieve bend and splay deformations by introducing twist deformations. In the resulting twisted and escaped ra...

Suspended droplets of cholesteric (chiral nematic) liquid crystals spontaneously rotate in the presence of a heat flux due to a temperature gradient, a phenomenon known as the Lehmann effect. So far, it is not clear whether this effect is due to the chirality of the phase and the molecules or only to the chirality of the director field. Here, we report the continuous rotation in a temperature g...

Abstract The liquid crystal director distribution is determined for a confined chiral nematic slab. The molecular director distribution of the field-controlled chiral nematic slab is directly calculated. The director profiles for the tilt and the twist angles, under different applied fields, are calculated in the slab with weak boundary conditions. Then, the dependence of the threshold field on...

Anomalous spectral shift of transmission peaks is observed in a Fabry-Pérot cavity filled with a chiral anisotropic medium. The effective refractive index value resides out of the interval between the ordinary and the extraordinary refractive indices. The spectral shift is explained by contribution of a geometric phase. The problem is solved analytically using the approximate Jones matrix metho...

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are interesting for the construction of biomaterials energy delivery and packaging purposes. The corresponding processing CNCs can be optimized through variation intercellulose interactions by employing different types solvents, thereby varying degree cellulose hydrogen bonding. aim this work is (i) to show how solvents affect self-assembled morphology CNCs, (ii) s...