Characterization of orientation correlation kinetics: chiral-mesophase domains in suspensions charged DNA-rods

Abstract

Bacteriophage DNA fd-rods are long and stiff rod-like particles which are known to exhibit a rich equilibrium phase behavior. Due to their helical molecular structure, they form the stable chiral nematic (N*) mesophases. Very little is known about the kinetics of forming various phases with orientations. The present study addresses the kinetics of chiral-mesophases and N*-phase, by using a novel image-time correlation technique. Instead of correlating time-lapsed real-space microscopy images, the corresponding Fourier images are shown for time-correlated averaged orientations. This allows to unambiguously distinguish to detect the temporal evolution of orientations on different length scales, such as domain sizes (depending on their relative orientations), and the chiral pitch within the domains. Kinetic features are qualitatively interpreted in terms of replica symmetry breaking of elastic deformations in the orthogonal directional axes of chiral-mesophase domains, as well by the average twist angle and the order parameter. This work can be interesting for characterizing other types of charged rods, mimicking super-cooled liquids and orientation glasses.