title: Myelin structures formed by thermotropic smectic liquid crystals.
abstract: We report on transient structures, formed by thermotropic smectic-A liquid crystals, resembling the myelin figures of lyotropic lamellar liquid crystals. The thermotropic myelin structures form during the solubilization of a smectic-A droplet in an aqueous phase containing a cationic surfactant at concentrations above the critical micelle concentration. Similar to the lyotropic myelin figures, the thermotropic myelins appear in an optical microscope as flexible tubelike structures growing at the smectic/aqueous interface. Polarizing microscopy and confocal fluorescence microscopy show that the smectic layers are parallel to the tube surface and form a cylindrically bent arrangement around a central line defect in the tube. We study the growth behavior of this new type of myelins and discuss similarities to and differences from the classical lyotropic myelin figures.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS), 37077 Goettingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Karthik
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Peddireddy
authors.forename: Pramoda
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Shashi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thutupalli
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Herminghaus
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bahr