Numerical simulation of the twist-grain-boundary phase of chiral liquid crystals

TL;DR

This paper numerically investigates the core structure and layer morphology of the twist-grain-boundary phase in chiral liquid crystals, revealing how increased chirality affects layer rigidity and structure.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical approach to analyze the TGB phase's core structure and layer morphology, highlighting the effects of chirality on layer behavior.

Findings

Increased chirality reduces the effective bending rigidity of layers.

Layer morphology deviates from classical minimal surfaces with higher chirality.

Unlocking of layer orientation and director occurs as chirality increases.

Abstract

We study the core structure of the twist-grain-boundary (TGB) phase of chiral liquid crystals by numerically minimizing the Landau-de Gennes free energy. We analyze the morphology of layers at the grain boundary, to better understand the mechanism of frustration between the smectic layer order and chirality. As the chirality increases, the effective bending rigidity of layers is reduced due to unlocking of the layer orientation and the director. This results in large deviation of the layer morphology from that of Scherk's first minimal surface and linear stack of screw dislocations (LSD).