Liquid-crystalline smectic blue phases

Abstract

Smectic blue phases (BPSm) are new mesophases of thermotropic liquid\ncrystals, which exhibit a double geometrical frustration: the extension of\nchirality in three spatial dimensions like the classical blue phases, and\nhelical twist competing with smectic order, as in the TGB phases. The existence\nof a quasi-long range smectic order in BPSm phases breaks the cubic symmetry of\nclassical blue phases. The symmetries of these new phases have been determined\nby X-ray scattering and optical polarizing microscopy experiments.\n