The Ever Elusive, Yet-to-Be-Discovered Twist-Bend Nematic Phase

Abstract

The second, lower-temperature nematic phase observed in nonlinear dimer liquid crystals has properties originating from nanoscale, polar, intermolecular packing preferences. It fits the description of a new liquid crystal phase discovered by Vanakaras and Photinos, called the polar-twisted nematic. It is unrelated to Meyer’s twist-bend nematic, a meta-structure having a macroscale director topology consistent with Frank–Oseen elastic theory.

Keywords

• polar-twisted nematic
• twist-bend nematic
• biaxial nematic
• dimer liquid crystal
• nematic director field
• Frank–Oseen elastic theory