Biaxial nematics: symmetries, order domains and field-induced phase transitions

Details Biaxial nematics: symmetries, order domains and field-induced phase transitions Biaxial nematics: symmetries, order domains and field-induced phase transitions

2009-04-29

arxiv.org/abs/0904.4586v1

Liquid Crystals, 36(6&7), 727-737 (2009).

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

15 pages 7 figures

Scientific paper

10.1080/02678290902814700

We study the symmetry and the spatial uniformity of orientational order of the biaxial nematic phase in the light of recent experimental observations of phase biaxiality in thermotropic bent-core and calamitic-tetramer nematics. We present evidence supporting monoclinic symmetry, instead of the usually assumed orthorhombic. We describe the use of deuterium NMR to differentiate between the possible symmetries. We present the spatial aspects of biaxial order in the context of the cluster model, wherein macroscopic biaxiality can result from the field-induced alignment of biaxial and possibly polar domains. We discuss the implications of different symmetries, in conjunction with the microdomain structure of the biaxial phase, on the alignment of biaxial nematics and on the measurements of biaxial order.

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