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arXiv · 1006.4670

Chirality and Biaxiality in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals

Subas Dhakal·Jonathan V. Selinger
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Abstract

We investigate the statistical mechanics of chirality and biaxiality in liquid crystals through a variety of theoretical approaches, including Monte Carlo simulations, lattice mean-field theory, and Landau theory. All of these calculations show that there is an important interaction between cholesteric twist and biaxial order: The twist acts as a field on the biaxial order, and conversely, the biaxial order increases the twist, i.e. reduces the pitch. We model the behavior of chiral biaxial liquid crystals as a function of temperature, and discuss how the predictions can be tested in experiments.

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Subas Dhakal, Jonathan V. Selinger. 2010-06-24. Chirality and Biaxiality in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.83.020702

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