Structural study of the liquid-crystal analog of the vortex liquid phase in type-II superconductors
Résumé
We propose a high-resolution X-ray study of the twisted liquid crystalline phase appearing between the Twist Grain Boundary smectic A phase (TGBA) and the usual cholesteric liquid crystal N *. The structure of this new phase has been proposed as a liquid of screw dislocations in a smectic A matrix, analogous to the liquid of magnetic vortices found in type-II superconductors in between the ordered Abrikosov lattice and the normal conductor phase. Our data show that the smectic correlation length is consistent with the existence of dislocations, hence supporting the theory of Kamien and Lubensky.