20.500.12556/DiRROS-22238 Microscale structural fluctuations at the melting phase transition of strongly confined achiral and chiral nematics We report on direct microscopic observations of thermally driven fluctuating dynamics in a narrow temperature region between the isotropic and low-temperature phases in achiral, chiral, and strongly chiral (blue phase) liquid crystal materials. We observe the dynamics in samples strongly confined between two glass surfaces which act as disordering surfaces at thicknesses above the critical confinement thickness below which the phase transition is gradual. In achiral and long-pitch chiral materials the fluctuating appears as formation and disappearance of small structureless nematic domains, whereas in strongly chiral materials, which exhibit blue phase I at larger thicknesses, these fluctuations are real-time formation and annihilation of topologically nontrivial nematic half-skyrmions. We study the dynamics of these fluctuations and present a simple model that explains how such dynamics is possible in ultraconfined systems. low-pressure microwave plasma liquid crystal materials nematic phase transition tekočekristalni materiali termodinamika fazni prehodi true false true American Physical Society ZDA Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Neznano 2025-05-12 14:28:14 2025-05-12 14:28:14 2025-10-24 03:50:53 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Opis vira z dne 12. 5. 2025; str. 045415-1-045415-18 Vol. 111, 045415 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 2024-10-30 2025-03-24 2025-04-15 53 2470-0053 10.1103/PhysRevE.111.045415 235566851 https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.111.045415 1 946f5048-2f2c-11f0-963a-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=32203 RAZ_Pisljar_Jaka_2025.pdf RAZ_Pisljar_Jaka_2025.pdf 1 14AB4F4B49B507DB87549594907D5668 a17c47a4d67cbacf0b230c3fa7e027b9744fc9ff06f0eb6121d4c559bdf06be4 cde48fdc-2f2d-11f0-963a-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=32204 Institut Jožef Stefan 0 0 0