Resonant Carbon K-Edge Soft X-Ray Scattering from Lattice-Free Heliconical Molecular Ordering: Soft Dilative Elasticity of the Twist-Bend Liquid Crystal Phase

Resonant x-ray scattering shows that the bulk structure of the twist-bend liquid crystal phase, recently discovered in bent molecular dimers, has spatial periodicity without electron density modulation, indicating a lattice-free heliconical nematic precession of orientation that has helical glide sy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2016-04, Vol.116 (14), p.147803-147803, Article 147803
Main Authors: Zhu, Chenhui, Tuchband, Michael R, Young, Anthony, Shuai, Min, Scarbrough, Alyssa, Walba, David M, Maclennan, Joseph E, Wang, Cheng, Hexemer, Alexander, Clark, Noel A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon
Dimers
Liquid crystals
Nematic
Precession
Scattering
Surface layer
Texture
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Summary:Resonant x-ray scattering shows that the bulk structure of the twist-bend liquid crystal phase, recently discovered in bent molecular dimers, has spatial periodicity without electron density modulation, indicating a lattice-free heliconical nematic precession of orientation that has helical glide symmetry. In situ study of the bulk helix texture of the dimer CB7CB shows an elastically confined temperature-dependent minimum helix pitch, but a remarkable elastic softness of pitch in response to dilative stresses. Scattering from the helix is not detectable in the higher temperature nematic phase.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.147803