Bird's-eye view to the realm of N_{TB} liquid crystals

TL;DR

This paper reviews the recent discovery and developments in twist-bend nematic liquid crystals, covering theoretical models, experimental techniques, and phase transition behaviors, providing a comprehensive overview of N_{TB} liquid crystals.

Contribution

It offers a detailed account of recent advances in N_{TB} liquid crystals, including Landau theory, light scattering, rheology, and phase transition shifts, integrating experimental data with a phenomenological approach.

Findings

Phenomenological model explains experimental data

External fields shift N-N_{TB} phase transition

Rheological behavior characterized in N_{TB} samples

Abstract

In this work we start with an introductory review of the relatively recently discovered type of liquid crystals, twist-bend nematics N_{TB}. Then we describe a more detailed account of recent developments in the field. Namely: (i) Landau Theory of the easy axis N_{TB} nematics; (ii) Light scattering in the N_{TB} liquid crystals; (iii) Rheological behavior of the ordered N_{TB} samples; (iv) Shift of the N - N_{TB} phase transition point (where N stands for the conventional nematic liquid crystal) under actions of external fields. It is found that advocated in this work simple phenomenological approach successfully explains available experimental data. The paper integrates the input from publications of other researchers, and presents a personal view of the author formed partially by his own results and discussions with his collaborators.