| Full text | |
| Author(s): |
Rosseto, M. P.
;
Evangelista, L. R.
;
Simonario, P. S.
;
Zola, R. S.
Total Authors: 4
|
| Document type: | Journal article |
| Source: | PHYSICAL REVIEW E; v. 101, n. 1, p. 7-pg., 2020-01-03. |
| Abstract | |
The twist-bend nematic (N-TB) phase is a doubly degenerated heliconical structure with nanometric pitch and spontaneous bend and twist deformations. It is favored by symmetry-breaking molecular structures, such as bent dimers and bent-core molecules, and it is currently one of the burgeoning fields of liquid-crystal research. Although tremendous advances have been reported in the past five years, especially in molecular synthesis, most of its potential applications are held back by the lack of a proper and definitive elastic model to describe its behavior under various situations such as confinement and applied field. In this work we use a recently proposed stable state elastic model and the fact that the mesophase behaves as a lamellar structure to propose a mesoscopic or coarse-grained model for the N-TB phase. By means of standard procedures used for smectic and cholesteric liquid crystals, we arrive at a closed-form energy for the phase and apply it to a few situations of interest. The predicted compressibility for several values of the cone angle and the critical field for field-induced deformation data. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 14/50983-3 - INCT 2014: complex fluids |
| Grantee: | Antonio Martins Figueiredo Neto |
| Support Opportunities: | Research Projects - Thematic Grants |