Smectic-like bâtonnets in nematic/twist-bend nematic biphasic samples

References

• Friedel G, Grandjean F. Observations géométriques sur les liquides à conique focales. Bull Soc Minéral. 1910;33:409–465.
   Google Scholar
• Friedel G. Les états mésomorphes de la matière. Ann Phys (Paris). 1922;18:273–474.
   Google Scholar
• Gabriel JCP, Batail P. Liquid crystals with a mineral core. Actual Chim. 1999;227:13–21.
   Google Scholar
• Jamali V, Behabtu N, Senyuk B, et al. Experimental realization of crossover in shape and director field of nematic tactoids. Phys Rev E. 2015;91:042507. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.91.042507.
   Google Scholar
• Kaznacheev AV, Bogdanov MM, Sonin AS. The influence of anchoring energy on the prolate shape of tactoids in lyotropic inorganic liquid crystals. JETP. 2003;97:1159–1167. doi:10.1134/1.1641899.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Prinsen P, van der Schoot P. Shape and director-field transformation of tactoids. Phys Rev E. 2003;68:021701-1-11. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.68.021701.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Niori T, Sekine T, Watanabe J, et al. Distinct ferroelectric smectic liquid crystals consisting of banana shaped achiral molecules. J Mater Chem. 1996;6:1231–1233. doi:10.1039/jm9960601231.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Cestari M, Diez-Berart S, Dunmur DA, et al. Phase behavior and properties of the liquid-crystal dimer 1 “,7 “-bis(4-cyanobiphenyl-4 ‘- yl) heptane: A twist-bend nematic liquid crystal. Phys Rev E. 2011;84:031704. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.84.031704.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sekine T, Niori T, Watanabe J, et al. Spontaneous helix formation in smectic liquid crystals comprising achiral molecules. J Mater Chem. 1997;7:1307–1309. doi:10.1039/a702026k.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Pelzl G, Eremin A, Diele S, et al. Spontaneous chiral ordering in the nematic phase of an achiral banana-shaped compound. J Mater Chem. 2002;12:2591–2593. doi:10.1039/b206236d.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Görtz V, Southern C, Roberts NW, et al. Unusual properties of a bent-core liquid-crystalline fluid. Soft Matter. 2009;5:463–471. doi:10.1039/B808283A.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Präsang C, Whitwood AC, Bruce DW. Spontaneous symmetry-breaking in halogen-bonded, bent-core liquid crystals: observation of a chemically driven Iso-N-N* phase sequence. Chem Commun. 2008;2137–2139. doi:10.1039/b719555a.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Šepelj M, Lesac A, Baumeister U, et al. Intercalated liquid-crystalline phases formed by symmetric dimers with an α,ω-diiminoalkylene spacer. J Mater Chem. 2007;17:1154–1165. doi:10.1039/B612517D.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Panov VP, Nagaraj M, Vij JK, et al. Spontaneous periodic deformations in nonchiral planar-aligned bimesogens with a nematic-nematic transition and a negative elastic constant. PhysRev Lett. 2010;105:167801. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.167801.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Meyer C, Luckhurst GR, Dozov I. Flexoelectrically driven electroclinic effect in the twist-bend nematic phase of achiral molecules with bent shapes. Phys Rev Lett. 2013;111:067801. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.067801.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Borshch V, Kim YK, Xiang J, et al. Nematic twist-bend phase with nanoscale modulation of molecular orientation. Nat Commun. 2013;4:2635. doi:10.1038/ncomms3635.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Chen D, Porada JH, Hooper JB, et al. Chiral heliconical ground state of nanoscale pitch in a nematic liquid crystal of achiral molecular dimers. PNAS. 2013;110:15931–15936. doi:10.1073/pnas.1314654110.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Dozov I. On the spontaneous symmetry breaking in the mesophases of achiral banana-shaped molecules. Europhys Lett. 2001;56:247–253. doi:10.1209/epl/i2001-00513-x.
   Google Scholar
• Challa PK, Borshch V, Parri O, et al. Twist-bend nematic liquid crystals in high magnetic fields. Phys Rev E. 2014;89:060501. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.89.060501.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Meyer C, Dozov I. Local distortion energy and coarse-grained elasticity of the twist-bend nematic phase. Soft Matter. 2016;12:574–580. doi:10.1039/C5SM02018B.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Salili SM, Kim C, Sprunt S, et al. Flow properties of a twist-bend nematic liquid crystal. RSC Adv. 2014;4:57419–57423. doi:10.1039/C4RA10008E.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Garoff S, Meyer RB. Electroclinic effect at the A-C phase change in a chiral smectic liquid crystal. Phys Rev Lett. 1977;38:848–851. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.38.848.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Patel JS, Meyer RB. Flexoelectric electro-optics of a cholesteric liquid crystal. Phys Rev Lett. 1987;58:538–540. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.58.1538.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Dawood A, Grossel MC, Luckhurst GR, et al. On the twist-bend nematic phase formed directly from the isotropic phase. Liq Cryst. 2016;43:2–12. doi:10.1080/02678292.2015.1114158.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Mandle RJ, Davis EJ, Archbold CT, et al. Microscopy studies of the nematic NTB phase of 1,11-di-(1”-cyanobiphenyl-4-yl)undecane. J Mater Chem C. 2014;2:556–566. doi:10.1039/C3TC32137A.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Mandle RJ, Davis EJ, Lobato SA, et al. Synthesis and characterisation of an unsymmetrical, ether-linked, fluorinated bimesogen exhibiting a new polymorphism containing the N-TB or ‘twist-bend’ phase. Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2014;16:6907–6915. doi:10.1039/c4cp00172a.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• López DO, Robles-Hernández B, Salud J, et al. Miscibility studies of two twist-bend nematic liquid crystal dimers with different average molecular curvatures. A comparison between experimental data and predictions of a Landau mean-field theory for the NTB–N phase transition. Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2016;18:4394–4404. doi:10.1039/C5CP07605F.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Sage IC, Lewis SJ, Chaplin D, inventors. US patent 5,190,688. 1988.
   Google Scholar
• Eidenschink R, Haas G, Römer M, et al. Liquid-crystalline 4-bicyclohexyl carbonitriles with extraordinary physical properties. Angew Chem. 1984;23:147. doi:10.1002/(ISSN)1521-3773.
   Google Scholar
• Robles-Hernández B, Sebastián N, Rosario de la Fuente M, et al. Twist, tilt, and orientational order at the nematic to twist-bend nematic phase transition of 1",9"-bis(4-cyanobiphenyl-4′-yl) nonane: A dielectric, 2H NMR, and calorimetric study. Phys Rev E. 2015;92:062505-1-16. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.92.062505.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Ramou E, Ahmed Z, Welch C, et al. The stabilisation of the Nx phase in mixtures. Soft Matter. 2016;12:888–899. doi:10.1039/C5SM01961C.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Grandjean F. L’orientation des liquides anisotropes sur les cristaux. Bull Soc Minéral. 1916;39:164.
   Google Scholar
• Grandjean F. L’orientation des liquides anisotropes sur les clivages des cristaux. C R Acad Sci. 1917;164:105.
   Google Scholar
• Helfrich W. Capillary flow of cholesteric and smectic liquid crystals. Phys Rev Lett. 1969;23:372–374. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.23.372.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• López DO, Sebastian N, de la Fuente MR, et al. Disentangling molecular motions involved in the glass transition of a twist-bend nematic liquid crystal through dielectric studies. J Chem Phys. 2012;137:034502. doi:10.1063/1.4733561.
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Meyer C, Luckhurst GR, Dozov I. The temperature dependence of the heliconical tilt angle in the twist-bend nematic phase of the odd dimer CB7CB. J Mater Chem C. 2015;3:318–328. doi:10.1039/C4TC01927J.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• De Gennes demonstrated that the apparent viscosity could reach values as high as 106 γ1 for the equivalent case of N* mass flow at fixed positions of the pseudo-layers. Moreover, the flow is non-Newtonian and the apparent viscosity depends on the texture and the geometry of the sample. see de Gennes PG, Prost J. The Physics of Liquid Crystals: Clarendon, Oxford; 1994.
   Google Scholar
• Lavrentovich OD. Hierarchy of defect structures in space filling by flexible smectic-A layers. Sov Phys JETP. 1986;64:984–990.
   Google Scholar
• Fournier J-B, Durand G. Focal conic faceting in smectic-A Iiquid crystals. J Phys II. 1991;1:845–870.
   Google Scholar
• Rapini A, Papoular M. Distorsion d’une lamelle nématique sous champ magnétique conditions d’ancrage aux parois. J Phys Coll. 1969;30:54–56.
   Google Scholar
• Wulff G. Zur Frage der Geschwindigkeit des Wachstums und der Auflösung de Krystallflächen. Z Kristallogr. 1901;34:449–530.
   Google Scholar
• Fournier J-B, Durand G. Volumic faceting of smectic-A liquid crystals. J Phys Coll. 1990;51:157–162.
   Google Scholar
• Fournier JB, Dozov I, Durand G. Surface frustration and texture instability in liquid crystals. Phys Rev A. 1989;41:2252–2255. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.41.2252.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar