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Updated: Apr 21, 2026

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Twist-bend heliconical chiral nematic liquid crystal phase of an achiral rigid bent-core mesogen
Dong Chen1, Michi Nakata1, Renfan Shao1
1Department of Physics and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0390, USA.
Abstract:
The chiral, heliconical (twist-bend) nematic ground state is reported in an achiral, rigid, bent-core mesogen (UD68). Similar to the nematic twist-bend (N(TB)) phase observed in bent molecular dimers, the N(TB) phase of UD68 forms macroscopic, smecticlike focal-conic textures and exhibits nanoscale, periodic modulation with no associated modulation of the electron density, i.e., without a detectable lamellar x-ray reflection peak. The N(TB) helical pitch is p(TB) ∼ 14 nm. When an electric field is applied normal to the helix axis, a weak electroclinic effect is observed, revealing 50-μm-scale left- and right-handed domains in a chiral conglomerate.
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