Thermodynamics of Blue Phases In Electric Fields

TL;DR

This paper uses numerical simulations to refine the phase diagrams of blue phases in liquid crystals under electric fields, confirming stabilization of certain phases and clarifying phase transition behaviors.

Contribution

It provides detailed numerical phase diagrams of blue phases in electric fields, improving upon previous semi-analytical estimates and confirming experimental observations.

Findings

Hexagonal blue phases are stabilized by electric fields.

The blue phase I - blue phase II transition remains largely unaffected by electric fields.

Refined phase boundaries compared to earlier semi-analytical predictions.

Abstract

We present extensive numerical studies to determine the phase diagrams of cubic and hexagonal blue phases in an electric field. We confirm the earlier prediction that hexagonal phases, both 2 and 3 dimensional, are stabilized by a field, but we significantly refine the phase boundaries, which were previously estimated by means of a semi-analytical approximation. In particular, our simulations show that the blue phase I -- blue phase II transition at fixed chirality is largely unaffected by electric field, as observed experimentally.