The isotropic-cholesteric transition in liquid-crystalline gels

Details The isotropic-cholesteric transition in liquid-crystalline gels The isotropic-cholesteric transition in liquid-crystalline gels

2002-06-15

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0206283v1

Physical Review E 66, 031706 (2002)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

7 pages, 3 figures

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevE.66.031706

In a nematic gel, the appearance of nematic order is accompanied by a spontaneous elongation of the gel parallel to the nematic director. If such a gel is made chiral, it has a tendency to form a cholesteric helical texture, in which local elongation of the gel parallel to the nematic director is suppressed due to the requirement of elastic compatibility. We show that a conical helix in which the director makes an oblique angle with respect to the helix axis serves as an energy minimizing compromise between the competing tendencies for elongation and twisting. We find the dependence of the helical cone angle and pitch on the strength of the chirality, and determine the change in sample shape at the isotropic to cholesteric phase transition.

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