Devil's staircase-type faceting of a cubic lyotropic liquid crystal
The faceting of monocrystals of the lyotropic cubic liquid crystals in equilibrium with a humid atmosphere is observed. Experiments reveal the presence of more than 60 different types of facets on the surface of a spherical crystal of radius R = 1 mm. The devil's staircase type of faceting has been predicted theoretically when the interaction between steps on the crystal surface is repulsive.
Pieranski
P
Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Associe au CNRS, Batiment 510, Universite Paris-Sud, 91405, Orsay Cedex, France.
Sotta
P
Rohe
D
Imperor-Clerc
M