Berlin 2015 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 45: P10: Colloids and Complex Liquids
CPP 45.12: Poster
Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 10:00–13:00, Poster A
Defect topolgies in chiral blue phases confined to mesoscopic channels — Sergej Schlotthauer1, •Robert Skutnik1, Tillmann Stieger1, and Martin Schoen1,2 — 1Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany — 2North Carolina State University, Raleigh (NC), USA
Soft matter confined to volumes of nanoscopic extent constitutes an interesting class of systems. In particular a lot of work has already been invested to study confined liquid crystals. The focus of this study is the orientational order of liquid-crystals and especially their deformation. In the case of non-chiral nematic liquid crystals one immediately may think of the twisted-nematic cell where the nematic director rotates between the substrates and a quasi-cholesteric helix evolves. The more recent research focuses on confined chiral phases, e.g. cholesteric or blue phases. If the introduced substrates are separated by a distance which is not equal to a multiple of half pitches transitions between the inherent defects of blue phases may be observed. Two-dimensional confinement (i.g. circular or rectangular mesochannels) of liquid crystals has been less far studied to date. In the late 1970s and early 1980s theoretical studies focused on the orientational order of nematic phases in tubular spaces. However, to the best of our knowledge there is no systematic study of chiral phases confined in two dimensions up to date. In our study we focus on two-dimensional confinement of chiral liquid crystals where we observe a host of novel topological defects. Furthermore, the geometry of the chosen channel and its surface anchoring determines the defect structure.