Structural investigations on smectic blue phases

Phys Rev Lett. 2001 Apr 23;86(17):3791-4. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.3791.

Abstract

Smectic blue phases ( BP(Sm)) are thermotropic liquid crystalline phases which exhibit both three-dimensional orientational order, such as classical blue phases, and smectic positional order. BP(Sm) appear as the three-dimensional counterpart of twist grain boundary phases. X-ray scattering and optical polarizing microscopy provide information on the hexagonal and cubic symmetries of these new phases.