title: Chiral structures and defects of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals induced by saddle-splay elasticity.
abstract: An experimental and theoretical study of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs) confined in cylinders with degenerate planar boundary conditions elucidates LCLC director configurations. When the Frank saddle-splay modulus is more than twice the twist modulus, the ground state adopts an inhomogeneous escaped-twisted configuration. Analysis of the configuration yields a large saddle-splay modulus, which violates Ericksen inequalities but not thermodynamic stability. Lastly, we observe point defects between opposite-handed domains, and we explain a preference for point defects over domain walls.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Zoey S
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Davidson
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: School of Natural Science, Department of Physics, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan 689-798, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Joonwoo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Still
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.|Department of Physics & Astronomy, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081, USA.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Collings
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Tom C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Lubensky
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Yodh