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Updated: Apr 7, 2026

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
A Twist-Bend Nematic (NTB ) Phase of Chiral Materials
Ewa Gorecka1, Nataša Vaupotič2,3, Anna Zep4
1Department of Chemistry, Warsaw University ul. Zwirki i Wigury 101, 02-089 Warsaw (Poland). gorecka@chem.uw.edu.pl.
Abstract:
New chiral dimers consisting of a rod-like and cholesterol mesogenic units are reported to form a chiral twist-bend nematic phase (NTB *) with heliconical structure. The compressibility of the NTB phase made of bent dimers was found to be as large as in smectic phases, which is consistent with the nanoperiodic structure of the NTB phase. The atomic force microscopy observations in chiral bent dimers revealed a periodicity of about 50 nm, which is significantly larger than the one reported previously for non-chiral compounds (ca. 10 nm).
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