Energy considerations for parabolic cyclides in SmA liquid crystals

Kevin John KIDNEY, Geoffrey McKay, Iain William Stewart

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

For Dupin cyclides in the SmA liquid crystal phase, Kleman and Lavrentovich [1] found that increasing the saddle-splay constant K¯ caused the minimum of the total elastic energy to occur at a decreased value of the eccentricity e, close to unity. We extend this work to the parabolic cyclides and present an analytical expression for the total elastic energy that is finite over a suitable range of values for the latus rectum, conventionally denoted in this context by −4- (>0). The length of the latus rectum characterises the parabolic focal conic structure analogously to the eccentricity of the Dupin cyclide focal conics. We demonstrate that the total energy is minimised at a particular value of -. It is further observed that the usual saddle-splay elastic term acts independently of - and that varying the value of K¯ does not affect the actual value of - at which the minimum of the elastic energy occurs.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1827-1833
Number of pages6
JournalMolecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals
Volume438
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005

Keywords

  • parabolic cyclides
  • smectic a liquid crystals
  • smectics
  • molecular physics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Energy considerations for parabolic cyclides in SmA liquid crystals'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this