Spontaneous chiral transition of a polymer-stabilised achiral nematic liquid crystal with cylindrical geometry

Spontaneous formation of a chiral structure of a polymer-stabilised achiral nematic liquid crystal with cylindrical geometry was suggested. A structurally achiral planar-radial configuration was converted to a coherently swirling twisted-escaped configuration with long time constant of about 10 h. This deformation is considered to be an energy minimising process and an asymmetrically covered polymer layer on the substrate surface seems to be responsible for the escaping process. By reducing the ultraviolet intensity, both substrates were symmetrically covered with the polymer layers and, consequently, a topologically different bipolar configuration was induced.