Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 22, 2025

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Structure of twin boundaries of cholesteric blue phase I
Akihiro Yamashita1, Jun-Ichi Fukuda1
1Department of Physics, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan.
Abstract:
We investigate numerically the structure of twin boundaries of cholesteric blue phases. Our study is based on the Landau-de Gennes continuum theory describing the orientational order of the liquid crystal by a second-rank tensor. We pay particular attention to blue phase I (BP I) with body-centered-cubic symmetry and consider twin boundaries between BP I lattices in which their (110) planes are shared and the (1[over ¯]12) plane of one lattice is parallel to the (11[over ¯]2) plane of the other as observed in previous experiments [Jin et al., Sci. Adv. 6, eaay5986 (2020)10.1126/sciadv.aay5986; Zhang et al., ACS Appl. Mater. Interf. 13, 36130 (2021)1944-824410.1021/acsami.1c06873]. We discuss two plausible cases in which the twin boundaries are parallel to the {112} planes or the {111} planes. In the former, disclination lines of obtusely bent form penetrate the twin boundaries, and in the latter straight disclination lines as well as bent ones are found at the twin boundaries. The former twin boundaries are energetically less costly, consistent with previous experimental identifications. From our numerical results the free energy of a twin boundary per unit area is estimated to be ≃4×10^{-6}Jm^{-2}, which indeed indicates that the formation of twin boundaries is not prohibitively costly.
More Related Videos
10:08Phase Behavior of Charged Vesicles Under Symmetric and Asymmetric Solution Conditions Monitored with Fluorescence Microscopy
Published on: October 24, 2017
06:35Construction and Systematical Symmetric Studies of a Series of Supramolecular Clusters with Binary or Ternary Ammonium Triphenylacetates
Published on: February 15, 2016
Related Concept Videos
Prochirality
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Asymmetric Lipid Bilayer
Newman Projections
The organic molecules rotate across the single bonds leading to numerous temporary three-dimensional structures of varying energy known as...
Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds