TY - JOUR
T1 - Thick smectic shells
AU - Manyuhina, O. V.
AU - Bowick, M. J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This issue is dedicated to Professor Martine Ben Amar. The present paper, in particular, would never have been possible without Martine who encouraged one of the authors (OVM) to study pattern formation in liquid crystals. The approaches in this paper are inspired by Martine׳s enthusiasm for exact solutions, complex analysis and perturbation theory. Her high scientific standards and the elegant way to tackle the most intricate and interesting scientific problems are highly appreciated. The authors acknowledge financial support from the Soft Matter Program of Syracuse University .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/6/11
Y1 - 2015/6/11
N2 - The known ground state of ultrathin smectic films confined to the surface of a sphere is described by four +1/2 defects assembled on a great circle and a director which follows geodesic lines. Using a simple perturbative approach we show that for thick smectic films on a sphere with planar anchoring this solution breaks down, distorting the smectic layers. The instability happens when the bend elastic constant exceeds the anchoring strength times the radius of the inner sphere. Above this threshold, the formation of a periodic chevron-like structure, observed experimentally as well, relieves geometric frustration. We quantify the effect of thickness and curvature of smectic shells and provide insight into the wavelength of the observed texture.
AB - The known ground state of ultrathin smectic films confined to the surface of a sphere is described by four +1/2 defects assembled on a great circle and a director which follows geodesic lines. Using a simple perturbative approach we show that for thick smectic films on a sphere with planar anchoring this solution breaks down, distorting the smectic layers. The instability happens when the bend elastic constant exceeds the anchoring strength times the radius of the inner sphere. Above this threshold, the formation of a periodic chevron-like structure, observed experimentally as well, relieves geometric frustration. We quantify the effect of thickness and curvature of smectic shells and provide insight into the wavelength of the observed texture.
KW - Geometric frustration
KW - Periodic structure
KW - Smectic liquid crystals
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijnonlinmec.2015.04.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ijnonlinmec.2015.04.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84930576522
SN - 0020-7462
VL - 75
SP - 87
EP - 91
JO - International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics
JF - International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics
ER -