title: Rheology of twist-grain-boundary-A liquid crystals.
abstract: We report studies on the rheological properties of a liquid crystalline analog of Abrikosov phase in type-II superconductors known as twist-grain-boundary-A (TGB(A)) phase. The TGB(A) phase shows a large apparent yield stress compared to the cholesteric (N*) phase. The storage modulus (G') of the TGB(A) phase is significantly larger than the loss modulus (G''). The dynamic relaxation measurements indicate a solid-like behavior of N*, TGB(A), and smectic-C* phases. The complex shear modulus of the TGB(A) phase exhibits a power-law behavior G*(ω) ∼ ω(α) with α ≃ 0.5. The relative amplitude of G' and G'' at various temperatures indicate that the enhanced elasticity of TGB(A) phase is due to the structural defects.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad 500046, India.
authors.forename: Rasmita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sahoo
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad 500046, India.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ananthaiah
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry, Military University of Technology, 00-908, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dabrowski
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad 500046, India.
authors.forename: Surajit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dhara
mesh_terms: D002264:Carboxylic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry; D012212:Rheology; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D002264:Carboxylic Acids