Effect of anisotropy on defect mode peculiarities in chiral liquid crystals

New electromechanical effect in chiral smectic C* liquid crystals

Pseudo-Casimir effect in untwisted chiral nematic liquid crystals.

We investigate theoretically the pseudo-Casimir force between parallel plates immersed in a chiral nematic liquid crystal. We focus on small-separation limit where the director configuration between the plates inducing strong homeotropic anchoring is uniform. We find that the force is attractive at separations smaller than the crossover distance and repulsive otherwise, and that it diverges log...

Ferroelectric ordering and electroclinic effect in chiral smectic liquid crystals.

Ferroelectric ordering, the electroclinic effect, and chiral smectic C(SmC*)-smectic A phase transitions in thin planar ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) cells are studied by means of linear electro-optic and second harmonic generation (SHG) techniques. The ferroelectric switching is detected in biased FLC cells by measuring azimuthal dependences of linear and nonlinear responses. The applied ...

Topology and self-assembly of defect-colloidal superstructure in confined chiral nematic liquid crystals.

We describe formation of defect-colloidal superstructures induced by microspheres with normal surface anchoring dispersed in chiral nematic liquid crystals in confinement-unwound homeotropic cells. Using three-dimensional nonlinear optical imaging of the director field, we demonstrate that some of the induced defects have nonsingular solitonic nature while others are singular point and line top...

Order and Frustration in Chiral Liquid Crystals

This paper reviews the complex ordered structures induced by chirality in liquid crystals. In general, chirality favors a twist in the orientation of liquidcrystal molecules. In some cases, as in the cholesteric phase, this favored twist can be achieved without any defects. More often, the favored twist competes with applied electric or magnetic fields or with geometric constraints, leading to ...