Thermotropic biaxial liquid crystals: Spontaneous or field stabilized?
May 9th, 2010
A.G. Vanakaras and D.J. Photinos, J. Chem. Phys., 128, 154512 (2008).
Abstract: An intermediate nematic phase is proposed for the interpretation of recent experimental results on phase biaxiality in bent-core nematic liquid crystals. The phase is macroscopically uniaxial but has microscopic biaxial, and possibly polar, domains. Under the action of an electric field, the phase acquires macroscopic biaxial ordering resulting from the collective alignment of the domains. A phenomenological theory is developed for the molecular order in this phase and for its transitions to purely uniaxial and to spontaneously biaxial nematic phases.
Related Works:
- Theory and simulation of biaxial nematic and orthogonal smectic phases formed by mixtures of board-like molecules, A. G. Vanakaras, M. A. Bates and D. J. Photinos, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 5(17), 3700 (2003).
- The phase behavior of a binary mixture of rodlike and disclike mesogens: Monte Carlo simulation, theory, and experiment, A. Galindo, A. J. Haslam, S. Varga, G. Jackson, A. G. Vanakaras, D. J. Photinos and D. A. Dunmur, J. Chem. Phys. 119(10), 5216 (2003).
- On the Molecular requirements for the stabilization of thermotropic Biaxial ordering in Rod-Plate nematics, A. G. Vanakaras, A. F. Terzis and D.J. Photinos, Molec.Cryst. Liq. Cryst., 362, 67-78 (2001).
- Theory of biaxial nematic ordering in rod-disc mixtures revisited, A. G. Vanakaras and D.J. Photinos, Molec.Cryst. Liq. Cryst., 299, 65-71 (1997).
- Hydrogen bonding and phase biaxiality in nematic rod-plate mixtures, A. G. Vanakaras, S. C. McGrother, G. Jackson and D. J. Photinos, Molec.Cryst. Liq. Cryst., 323, 199 (1998).
http://www.matersci.upatras.gr/SoftMat/Research/PDF/JCP08_BiaxClusters.pdf
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