IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-021-22413-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A generalized density-modulated twist-splay-bend phase of banana-shaped particles

Author

Listed:
  • Massimiliano Chiappini

    (Utrecht University)

  • Marjolein Dijkstra

    (Utrecht University)

Abstract

In 1976, Meyer predicted that bend distortions of the nematic director field are complemented by deformations of either twist or splay, yielding twist-bend and splay-bend nematic phases, respectively. Four decades later, the existence of the splay-bend nematic phase remains dubious, and the origin of these spontaneous distortions uncertain. Here, we conjecture that bend deformations of the nematic director can be complemented by simultaneous distortions of both twist and splay, yielding a twist-splay-bend nematic phase. Using theory and simulations, we show that the coupling between polar order and bend deformations drives the formation of modulated phases in systems of curved rods. We find that twist-bend phases transition to splay-bend phases via intermediate twist-splay-bend phases, and that splay distortions are always accompanied by periodic density modulations due to the coupling of the particle curvature with the non-uniform curvature of the splayed director field, implying that the twist-splay-bend and splay-bend phases of banana-shaped particles are actually smectic phases.

Suggested Citation

  • Massimiliano Chiappini & Marjolein Dijkstra, 2021. "A generalized density-modulated twist-splay-bend phase of banana-shaped particles," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-22413-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22413-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22413-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-021-22413-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rodolfo Subert & Gerardo Campos-Villalobos & Marjolein Dijkstra, 2024. "Achiral hard bananas assemble double-twist skyrmions and blue phases," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Ramakrishna Kotni & Albert Grau-Carbonell & Massimiliano Chiappini & Marjolein Dijkstra & Alfons Blaaderen, 2022. "Splay-bend nematic phases of bent colloidal silica rods induced by polydispersity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-22413-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.