Julia Yeomans OBE FRS

Abstract:

We describe the occurrence and properties of liquid crystal phases showing two dimensional splay and bend distortions which are stabilized by flexoelectric interactions. These phases are characterized by regions of locally double splayed order separated by topological defects and are thus analogous to the blue phases of cholesteric liquid crystals. We present a mean-field analysis based upon the Landau-de Gennes Q-tensor theory and construct a phase diagram for flexoelectric structures using analytic and numerical results. We stress the similarities and discrepancies between the cholesteric and flexoelectric cases.