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Updated: Apr 20, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Phase diagrams of mixtures of a polymer and a cholesteric liquid crystal under an external field
1Department of Bioscience and Bioinformatics, Faculty of Computer Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kawazu 680-4, Iizuka, Fukuoka 820-8502, Japan.
Abstract:
We present a mean field theory to describe phase behaviors in mixtures of a polymer and a cholesteric liquid crystal under an external magnetic or electric field. Taking into account a chiral coupling between a polymer and a liquid crystal under the external field, we examine twist-untwist phase transitions and phase separations in the mixtures. It is found that a cholesteric-nematic phase transition can be induced by not only the external field but also concentration and temperature. Depending on the strength of the external field, we predict cholesteric-paranematic (Ch+pN), nematic-paranematic (N+pN), cholesteric-nematic (Ch+N) phase separations, etc., on the temperature-concentration plane. We also discuss mixtures of a non-chiral nematic liquid crystal and a chiral dopant.
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