Straight round the twist: Frustration and chirality in Smectics-A

Abstract

Frustration is a powerful mechanism in condensed matter systems, driving both order and complexity. In smectics, the frustration between macroscopic chirality and equally spaced layers generates textures characterized by a proliferation of defects. In this article, we study several different ground states of the chiral Landau-de Gennes free energy for a smectic liquid crystal. The standard theory finds the twist grain boundary (TGB) phase to be the ground state for chiral type II smectics. However, for very highly chiral systems, the hierarchical helical nanofilament phase can form and is stable over the TGB.