![]() ![]() A color tuning device operates with a similar heliconical state liquid crystal material but with the heliconical director axis oriented perpendicular to themore » plane of the cell. The axis of the heliconical state is in the plane of the liquid crystal cell or perpendicular to the plane, depending on the application. The applied electric field produces diffracted light from the cholesteric LC material within the visible, infrared or ultraviolet. Xiang, JieĪ diffraction grating comprises a liquid crystal (LC) cell configured to apply an electric field through a cholesteric LC material that induces the cholesteric LC material into a heliconical state with an oblique helicoid director. The roles and functions of biological cholesteric liquid crystals include maximisation of packing efficiency, morphogenesis, mechanical stability, optical information, radiation protection and evolution pressure.įield induced heliconical structure of cholesteric liquid crystalĭOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV) This article specifically aims at describing the consequences of the cholesteric geometry in living matter, which are far from being fully defined and understood, and discusses various perspectives. Cholesteric structures can be found in bacteriophages, archaea, eukaryotes, bacterial nucleoids, chromosomes of unicellular algae, sperm nuclei of many vertebrates, cuticles of crustaceans and insects, bone, tendon, cornea, fish scales and scutes, cuttlebone and squid pens, plant cell walls, virus suspensions, silk produced by spiders and silkworms, and arterial wall lesions. Herein, we review the recent advances in the cholesteric organisation of DNA, chromatin, chitin, cellulose, collagen, viruses, silk and cholesterol ester deposition in atherosclerosis. In the animal and plant kingdoms, the cholesteric structure is a recurring design, suggesting a convergent evolution to an optimised left-handed helix. ![]() Cholesteric liquid crystals are omnipresent in living matter under both in vivo and in vitro conditions and address the major types of molecules essential to life. Liquid crystals play an important role in biology because the combination of order and mobility is a basic requirement for self-organisation and structure formation in living systems. These deformations can either promote or hinder the wetting of the substrate by a cholesteric, depending on the properties of the cholesteric liquid crystal.Ĭholesteric liquid crystals in living matter. If, on the other hand, the anchoring conditions force the distortion of the liquid crystal layers the wetting properties are altered, the free cholesteric-isotropic interface is non-planar and there is a layer of topological defects close to the substrate. If the properties of substrate and of the interface are such that the cholesteric layers are not distorted, the wetting properties are similar to those of a nematic liquid crystal. We investigate theoretically the wetting properties of cholesteric liquid crystals at a planar substrate. Silvestre, Nuno M Figueirinhas Pereira, Maria Carolina Bernardino, Nelson R Telo da Gama, Margarida M
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