Orientation of a Helical Nanofilament (B4) Liquid-Crystal Phase: Topographic Control of Confinement, Shear Flow, and Temperature Gradients

Abstract

Oriented domains of the chiral/polar crystalline helical nanofilaments of the bent-core liquid crystal B4 phase are reported. A combination of topographic confinement of the bent-core molecule in micrometer-scale rectangular channels etched into a silicon surface with cooling from the isotropic melt in the presence of an air flow over the surface yields nanofilament orientation parallel to the flow.