Elasticity-driven partial demixing in cholesteric liquid crystal films.
We discuss the partial demixing of a chiral nematic mixture of a chiral and an achiral compound, induced by inhomogeneous confinement between substrates. While the effect is tiny in low molar mass mixtures, it is predicted to be noticeable in polymeric systems. The potential of the effect for improving performance of liquid crystal based photonic devices is discussed.
Schmidtke
Jürgen
J
Department of Engineering, Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics (CMMPE), University of Cambridge, 9 J.J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0FA, United Kingdom. js709@cam.ac.uk
Coles
Harry J
HJ