Resonant soft X-ray scattering study of twist bend nematic phase

ORAL

Abstract

Liquid crystals (LCs) form many interesting nano-scale structures, many of which can be probed with X-ray scattering techniques, typically hard X-rays due to its high penetrating power. However, in the hard X-ray regime, the scattering contrast of some LC nanostructures can be extremely low due to their weak electron density modulation. Here we show it is possible to use resonant soft x-rays to probe the helical pitch of the newly discovered twist bend nematic phase [1,2], which is purely a twist bend structure with no electron density modulation. The in-situ temperature dependent measurement will be presented and discussed. This work together with our previous study on the helical nanofilament B4 phase [3] shows the great potential of soft x-ray scattering in liquid crystals. [1] D. Chen, et al. \textit{PNAS}, DOI 1314654110 (2015). [2] V. Borshch, et al. \textit{Nat. Comm}., \textbf{4}, 2635 (2015). [3] C. Zhu, et al. \textit{Nano. Lett.} \textbf{15}, 3420 (2015).

*supported by the Director of the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

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Authors

  • Chenhui Zhu

    • Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
    • Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Anthony Young

    • ;
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Cheng Wang

    • ;
    • Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Alexander Hexemer

    • Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory
    • Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • LBNL

  • Quan Li

    • ;

  • Oleg Lavrentovich

    • Liquid crystal institute, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA
    • Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State Univ - Kent
    • Kent State University
    • LCI, Kent State University

  • David Walba

    • Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado Boulder

  • Michael Tuchband

    • ;
    • Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder

  • Min Shuai

    • ;

  • Noel Clark

    • University of Colorado
    • Department of Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder