0000000000056165
AUTHOR
Michael Seul
showing 2 related works from this author
Novel stripe textures in nonchiral hexatic liquid-crystal films
1992
A novel macroscopic stripe texture has been observed in freely suspended films of nonchiral liquid crystal, uniform stripes of alternating molecular orientation form spontaneously at the smectic-C--to--surface-hexatic phase transition and broaden with decreasing temperature. The stripes are identified as splay domains whose formation is attributed to the polar symmetry of the hexatic surface layers. Transverse (director bend) walls, which lead to an additional modulation of the basic one-dimensional pattern, are manifested inside thick circular islands as twelve-armed star defects.
Textures in hexatic films of nonchiral liquid crystals: Symmetry breaking and modulated phases
1994
Novel modulated textures, such as stripes and multiarmed star defects, have been observed in freely suspended films of nonchiral liquid crystals just below the smectic-$C$ to hexatic phase transition. Detailed studies using depolarized reflection microscopy suggest that the stripes are locally chiral surface splay domains of the smectic-$L$ phase, a tilted hexatic not previously identified in thermotropic liquid crystals. Line defects which form additional domain walls in the hexatic lattice lead to characteristic modulations of the basic one-dimensional stripe pattern. Inside thick circular islands, for example, stripes form circumferentially and the lines form centered 12-armed stars, res…