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Updated: Apr 27, 2026

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Twist-bend nematic liquid crystals in high magnetic fields
P K Challa1, V Borshch2, O Parri3
1Department of Physics, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA.
Abstract:
We present magneto-optic measurements on two materials that form the recently discovered twist-bend nematic (N_{tb}) phase. This intriguing state of matter represents a fluid phase that is orientationally anisotropic in three directions and also exhibits translational order with periodicity several times larger than the molecular size. N_{tb} materials may also spontaneously form a visible, macroscopic stripe texture. We show that the optical stripe texture can be persistently inhibited by a magnetic field, and a 25T external magnetic field depresses the N-N_{tb} phase transition temperature by almost 1{∘}C. We propose a quantitative mechanism to account for this shift and suggest a Helfrich-Hurault-type mechanism for the optical stripe formation.
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