Experimental test of curvature-driven dynamics in the phase ordering of a two dimensional liquid crystal

  • Alberto Sicilia
  • , Jeferson J. Arenzon
  • , Ingo Dierking
  • , Alan J. Bray
  • , Leticia F. Cugliandolo
  • , Josu Martínez-Perdiguero
  • , Ibon Alonso
  • , Inmaculada C. Pintre

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    We study electric field driven deracemization in an achiral liquid crystal through the formation and coarsening of chiral domains. It is proposed that deracemization in this system is a curvature-driven process. We test this prediction using the recently obtained exact result for the distribution of hull-enclosed areas in two-dimensional coarsening with nonconserved scalar order parameter dynamics. The experimental data are in very good agreement with the theory. We thus demonstrate that deracemization in such bent-core liquid crystals belongs to the Allen-Cahn universality class, and that the exact formula, which gives us the statistics of domain sizes during coarsening, can also be used as a strict test for this dynamic universality class. © 2008 The American Physical Society.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number197801
    JournalPhysical Review Letters
    Volume101
    Issue number19
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 7 Nov 2008

    Keywords

    • SHAPED MOLECULES

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