Cholesteric Phase in Virus Suspensions

Z. Dogic; S. Fraden

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arXiv · cond-mat/0003434

Cholesteric Phase in Virus Suspensions

Z. Dogic·S. Fraden

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Abstract

We report measurements of the cholesteric pitch and twist elastic constant $(K_{22})$ in monodisperse suspensions of the rod-like virus filamentous bacteriophage {\it fd}. Measurements were taken for concentrations spanning the entire cholesteric region at several ionic strengths and temperatures. In the limit of high ionic strength the cholesteric pitch $(P_0)$ scales with concentration (c) as $P_0 \propto c^{-1.66}$. As the ionic strength decreases the scaling exponent systematically changes to lower values.

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Z. Dogic, S. Fraden. 2000-03-28. Cholesteric Phase in Virus Suspensions. https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0003434

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