Shear alignment and instability of smectic phases

Mark Goulian, Scott T. Milner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

74 Scopus citations

Abstract

We consider the shear flow of well-aligned one-component smectic phases, such as thermotropic smectics and lamellar diblock copolymers, below the critical region. We show that, as a result of thermal fluctuations of the layers, parallel c alignment is generically unstable and perpendicular a alignment is stable against long-wavelength undulations. We also find, surprisingly, that both a and c alignments are stable for a narrow window of values for the anisotropic viscosity.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1775-1778
Number of pages4
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume74
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 1995

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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