Mixtures of Blue Phase Liquid Crystal with Simple Liquids: Elastic Emulsions and Cubic Fluid Cylinders

Juho S Lintuvuori (1) , K. Stratford (2) , M. E. Cates (3) , D. Marenduzzo (4)

1 LOMA - Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine
2 EPCC [Edinburgh]
3 DAMTP - Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
4 SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy [Edinburgh]

We investigate numerically the behaviour of a phase-separating mixture of a blue phase I liquid crystal with an isotropic fluid. The resulting morphology is primarily controlled by an inverse capillary number, χ, setting the balance between interfacial and elastic forces. When χ and the concentration of the isotropic component are both low, the blue phase disclination lattice templates a cubic array of fluid cylinders. For larger χ, the isotropic phase arranges primarily into liquid emulsion droplets which coarsen very slowly, rewiring the blue phase disclination lines into an amorphous elastic network. Our blue phase/simple fluid composites can be externally manipulated: an electric field can trigger a morphological transition between cubic fluid cylinder phases with different topologies.

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]

Juho S Lintuvuori, K. Stratford, M. E. Cates, D. Marenduzzo. Mixtures of Blue Phase Liquid Crystal with Simple Liquids: Elastic Emulsions and Cubic Fluid Cylinders. Physical Review Letters, 2018, 121 (3), pp.037802 (1-5). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.037802⟩. ⟨hal-01849588⟩