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Updated: May 28, 2025

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Evolution of Focal Conic Domains in SmA-N Phase Transition
Vincent Plée1, Jordan Lacam1, Gianni Pascoli1
1Laboratoire Physique des Systèmes Complexes, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, 33 rue Saint-Leu, 80039 Amiens, France.
Abstract:
Focal conics are nice geometric structures of liquid crystal phases which present periodicity such as smectic phase, cholesteric phase, etc. Here, we focus on focal conic domains (FCD) in smectic A liquid crystal. During a phase transition from smectic A to nematic, these FCDs evolve as the eccentricity increases until they completely disappear. Here, we present experimental observations of this phenomenon, along with a modeling approach that allows for an interestingly precise description of the phenomenon, revealing, in particular, a coefficient that seems to exhibit the behavior of a critical exponent.
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