Shear-induced birefringence in an optically isotropic cubic liquid crystalline phase

We report an unusually strong flow-induced birefringence in an optically isotropic cubic phase occurring below the isotropic chiral conglomerate phase formed by a low-molecular-weight polycatenar mesogen. The transition into the birefringent state occurs thresholdless and the induced birefringence i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Soft matter 2022-11, Vol.18 (43), p.8315-8319
Main Authors: Eremin, Alexey, Murad, Ahmad, Alaasar, Mohamed
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Birefringence
Liquid crystals
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We report an unusually strong flow-induced birefringence in an optically isotropic cubic phase occurring below the isotropic chiral conglomerate phase formed by a low-molecular-weight polycatenar mesogen. The transition into the birefringent state occurs thresholdless and the induced birefringence is comparable with that observed in polymeric systems. We suggest that the flow-induced deformation of the cubic structure is responsible for the strong rheo-optical response. We demonstrate thresholdless flow-induced birefringence in a liquid crystal isotropic phase made of low-molecular-weight swallow-tail polycatenar mesogens. The induced birefringence is comparable with that observed in polymeric systems.
ISSN:1744-683X
1744-6848
DOI:10.1039/d2sm01148d