title: Ordering dynamics of blue phases entails kinetic stabilization of amorphous networks.
abstract: The cubic blue phases of liquid crystals are fascinating and technologically promising examples of hierarchically structured soft materials, comprising ordered networks of defect lines (disclinations) within a liquid crystalline matrix. We present large-scale simulations of their domain growth, starting from a blue phase nucleus within a supercooled isotropic or cholesteric background. The nucleated phase is thermodynamically stable; one expects its slow orderly growth, creating a bulk cubic phase. Instead, we find that the strong propensity to form disclinations drives the rapid disorderly growth of a metastable amorphous defect network. During this process, the original nucleus is destroyed; reemergence of the stable phase may therefore require a second nucleation step. Our findings suggest that blue phases exhibit hierarchical behavior in their ordering dynamics, to match the hierarchy in their structure.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Henrich
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stratford
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marenduzzo
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Cates
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015394:Molecular Structure; D013816:Thermodynamics