Ordered Structures of a Chiral Liquid Crystal in a Thin Cell : Skyrmion Lattices of a Liquid Crystal(Current Topics)

Abstract

A highly chiral liquid crystal exhibits an intricate ordered phase known as a cholesteric blue phase, as a result of frustrations induced by strong twist deformations. We show that when confined in a thin cell, such a liquid crystal can exhibit various exotic ordered structures highly different from those of bulk cholesteric blue phases. These structures include a lattice of Skyrmion excitations that have been attracting great interest in condensed matter physics.