Curvature-Induced Twist in Homeotropic Nematic Tori
| Autor: | D. Zeb Rocklin, James McInerney, Mohan Srinivasarao, Elisabetta A. Matsumoto, Karthik Nayani, Jung Ok Park, Perry W. Ellis, Alberto Fernandez-Nieves |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
Toroid Condensed matter physics Thermodynamic equilibrium Homeotropic alignment Bent molecular geometry General Physics and Astronomy 02 engineering and technology Radius 021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology Curvature 01 natural sciences Condensed Matter::Soft Condensed Matter Liquid crystal 0103 physical sciences Twist 010306 general physics 0210 nano-technology |
| Zdroj: | Physical Review Letters. 121 |
| ISSN: | 1079-7114 0031-9007 |
| DOI: | 10.1103/physrevlett.121.247803 |
| Popis: | We confine a nematic liquid crystal with homeotropic anchoring to stable toroidal droplets and study how geometry affects the equilibrium director configuration. In contrast to the case of cylindrical confinement, we find that the equilibrium state is chiral-a twisted and escaped radial director configuration. Furthermore, we find that the magnitude of the twist distortion increases as the ratio of the ring radius to the tube radius decreases; we confirm this with computer simulations of optically polarized microscopy textures. In addition, numerical calculations also indicate that the local geometry indeed affects the magnitude of the twist distortion. We further confirm this curvature-induced twisting using bent cylindrical capillaries. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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