Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Trinity College, The University of Dublin , Dublin 2, Ireland.
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Dublin Institute of Technology , Dublin 8, Ireland.
Nano Lett. 2017 Dec 13;17(12):7515-7519. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b03441. Epub 2017 Nov 27.
Photopolymerization of a reactive mesogen mixed with a mesogenic dimer, shown to exhibit the twist-bend nematic phase (N), reveals the complex structure of the self-deformation patterns observed in planar cells. The polymerized reactive mesogen retains the structure formed by liquid crystalline molecules in the twist bend phase, thus enabling its observation by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Hierarchical ordering scales ranging from tens of nanometers to micrometers are imaged in detail. Submicron features, anticipated from earlier X-ray experiments, are visualized directly. In the self-deformation stripes formed in the N phase, the average director field is found tilted in the cell plane by an angle of up to 45° from the cell rubbing direction. This tilt explains the sign inversion being observed in the electro-optical studies.
将具有介晶二聚体的反应性介晶混合进行光聚合，结果显示出扭曲向列相（N），这揭示了在平面单元中观察到的自变形模式的复杂结构。聚合的反应性介晶保留了在扭曲弯曲相中由液晶分子形成的结构，从而使其能够通过扫描电子显微镜（SEM）进行观察。详细地对从数十纳米到微米的尺度进行分级排序成像。从早期的 X 射线实验中预测的亚微米特征直接可视化。在 N 相中形成的自变形条纹中，发现平均指向矢场相对于单元摩擦方向在单元平面内倾斜达 45°。该倾斜解释了在电光研究中观察到的符号反转。
