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Pattern Formation During the Growth of Liquid Crystal Phases

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Conclusion

The contribution of liquid crystals to the study of growth phenomena has been two fold:

  • First, experiments with liquid crystals have allowed us to test various theoretical predictions that, done with traditional materials, are difficult or impossible. These include exploration of the marginal stability curve, dendrite selection by surface tension anisotropy and the Herring instability.

  • Second, and more important, they have opened new experimental and theoretical prospects. Nematics pose the problem of secondary instabilities of a cellular front and have led, for example, to the discovery of drifring solitary modes. Their main advantage, in comparison to “classical materials, is their fluidity and consequent rapid phase dynamics. Smectics have shown new phenomena, such as cells with an angular discontinuity at the tip and an oscillatory cell-to-dendrite transition. They are also useful in studying facet destabilization and macrostep dynamics in directional growth. Finally, columnar mesophases have made possible the study of morphological transitions between different growth regimes. They also pose the problem of the stability of the effective fronts observed at large velociry.

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Authors
  1. Patrick Oswald
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  2. John Bechhoefer
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  3. Francisco Melo
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Oswald, P., Bechhoefer, J. & Melo, F. Pattern Formation During the Growth of Liquid Crystal Phases. MRS Bulletin 16, 38–45 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1557/S0883769400057894

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