Khandelwal, Anjuli and Bawa, S. S. and Yadav , Maneesha (2009) Optical Investigations of Twist Grain Boundary Phases Exhibiting Cylindrical and Cone-Like Domain Textures. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, 511 (1). 59/[1529]-74/[1544]. ISSN 1563-5287

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Abstract

Polarized optical microscopy observations performed on mixtures of Liquid crystals reveal developable domain textures for Twist Grain Boundary (TGB) phases. In these structures, the smectic blocks, the grain boundaries and the layers of helical structure of TGB phase are coiled in a double-twist manner. The energy considerations require that the blocks can just be folded in cones and cylinders, the only surfaces that may be unrolled without elongations. The cones need defects to build up; in particular, a disclination is necessary all along the cone axis. In the N* phase, the field of the χ-director that emanates from the center of the spherulite has the geometry of a hedgehog point defect. The disclination lines of strength k = 2 escape into third dimension with no singularity remaining and the χ-director is not materialized. However in TGBA the χ-singularities are materialized as singularities of the slabs.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to M/s Taylor & Francis.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	CC domains; liquid crystals; TGB; χ-singularities
Subjects:	Crystallography
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User:	Ms Neetu Chandra
Date Deposited:	21 Sep 2012 07:32
Last Modified:	21 Sep 2012 07:32
URI:	http://npl.csircentral.net/id/eprint/591

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