Unusual growth of smectic A liquid crystals

Abstract

Smectic A liquid crystals have been found to grow from the isotropic phase in the very unusual form of long cylindrical structures in some binary mixtures of smectogenic and non-mesomorphic aliphatic compounds. We report some experiments which show that the occurrence and stability of these structures can be accounted for by a concentration gradient of the non- mesomorphic component. In such a case it is necessary to include a linear term in curvature in the elastic energy density of the system.