Chirality Transfer from Helical Nanostructures to Nematics: A Monte Carlo Study

Abstract

We present a simple Monte Carlo study of orientational ordering in a nematic liquid crystal with embedded chiral nanostructures. The nanostructures are shown to impose bulk chiral order in the nematic only for large enough values of the chiral pitch.

Keywords:

• nematics
• confinement
• chirality
• nanostructures
• Monte Carlo simulations

Acknowledgments

C. Z. wishes to thank the University of Bologna and MIUR-PRIN for support. C. C. and P. P. are grateful to INFN through the grant IS BO62. G. S. and S. Ž. acknowledge the financial support of the Slovene Research Agency (Program P1-0099) and of the European Union (NAMASTE Center of Excellence).