Abstract
ABSTRACTOn the basis of Landau–de Gennes theory and the finite-difference iterative method, spontaneous chiral structures in cylinders with degenerate planar boundary conditions are investigated. A double-twist director configuration can be achieved by the saddle–splay contribution, corresponding to the L24 term in Landau–de Gennes theory. The twist angle increases as the radius R of the cylinder is reduced because the curvature of the cylindrical surface becomes larger. Moreover, we find fine structures of the domain walls and point defects between opposite-handed domains. An energy comparison shows that domain walls are the stable state for K24/K> 0.6 (K11 = K33 = K, K11, K33 and K24 are the splay, bend, saddle–splay elastic constants in Frank theory), whereas point defects are the stable state for K24/K< 0.6.
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