title: Spontaneous onion-structure formation from planar lamellar nuclei.
abstract: Nucleation and growth are a basic elementary process of ordering. The nucleation process is controlled by a competition between interfacial and bulk energy. Thus an ordered structure of a nucleus at its birth is not necessarily the most stable thermodynamically: Ostwald step rule. In addition to this, we found the topological transformation of nuclei from the most stable bulk structure (planar lamella) to a metastable one (onion) in a lyotropic liquid crystal. This indicates that the fate of nuclei of low-dimensional internal order can also be seriously affected by an additional competition between interfacial and elastic deformation energy.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iwashita
authors.forename: Hajime
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka