Origin and structure of liquid crystalline Blue Phase III

Abstract

We report here an off-lattice NVT molecular dynamics simulation study of a system of polar chiral ellipsoidal molecules, which spontaneously exhibits Blue Phase III (BPIII), considering coarse-grained attractive-repulsive pair interaction appropriate for anisotropic liquid crystal mesogens. We have observed that suitable selection of chiral and dipolar strengths not only gives rise to thermodynamically stable BPIII but novel Smectic and Bilayered BPIII as well. Further, we have demonstrated that the occurrence of BPIII and its layered counterparts depend crucially on molecular elongation.

Amorphous Blue Phase III: Structure, Materials, and Properties

“…More recently, two interesting simulation studies on BPIII have been reported. The study reported by Paul and Saha supports the theoretical proposition of the spaghetti-like arrangement of the double-twist cylinders as a model of BPIII [ 24 ]. Pišljar and Muševič et al reproduced the bulk BPIII of mutually enmeshed structures of singular defect lines (yellow) and skyrmion filament-DTCs ( Figure 5 ) [ 46 ].…”

“…More recently, two interesting simulation studies on BPIII have been reported. Th study reported by Paul and Saha supports the theoretical proposition of the spaghetti-lik arrangement of the double-twist cylinders as a model of BPIII [24]. Pisľjar and Musěvič al.…”

“…The FE-SEM study supports not a cubic domain model, but a spaghetti-like double-twist model. Recent simulations [ 24 , 46 ] and our FE-SEM measurements [ 50 ] reveal that BPIII is a spaghetti-like tangled arrangement of DTCs with characteristic dynamics.…”

“…Recently, Henrich et al proposed that an amorphous disclination network in BPIII is locally close to cubic BPII [23]. On the other hand, the more recent simulation by Paul and Saha supports the theoretical proposition of the spaghetti-like arrangement of the double-twist cylinders [24]. In addition to the simulation studies, some experimental studies have been conducted to identify the structure of BPIII.…”

Photonic features of blue phase liquid crystals under curved confinement

“…1G). [28][29][30][31][32] Fig. 1 As both BPI and BPII exhibit cubic symmetries with lattice parameters corresponding to the wavelength range of visible light, their inherent topologies achieve an adjustable photonic bandgap.…”