Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Bent-Core Liquid Crystals
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By molecular modeling we demonstrate that the nematic long-range order discovered in bent-core liquid crystal systems should reveal further spatially homogeneous phases. Two of them are identified as a tetrahedratic nematic ($N_T$) phase with $D_{2d}$ symmetry and a chiral tetrahedratic nematic ($N_T^*$) phase with $D_2$ symmetry. These new phases were found for a lattice model with quadrupolar and octupolar anisotropic interactions using Mean Field theory and Monte Carlo simulations. The phase diagrams exhibit tetrahedratic ($T$), $N_T$ and $N_T^*$ phases, in addition to ordinary isotropic ($I$), uniaxial nematic ($N_U$) and biaxial nematic ($N_B$) phases. To our knowledge, this is the first molecular model with spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in non-layered systems.
12 pages, 4 figures, submitted for publication
12 pages, 4 figures, submitted for publication