Greta Cukrov, featured ILCC liquid crystal artist, April 2017

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Greta Cukrov obtained her B.Sc. degree in Physics at San Jose State University (2014) and her MS in Chemical Physics at the Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University (2016). Currently, she continues to work on her Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Ph. D. Program at the Liquid Crystal Institute. Greta is supervised by Dr. Oleg D. Lavrentovich. Her main focus is the characterization of liquid crystal dimers that exhibit twist-bend nematic phase. Her list of publications are available at: http://lavrentovichgroup.com/cukrov.html

Contact: gcukrov@kent.edu



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This texture shows a twist-bend nematic phase formed inside a round capillary tube (inner diameter is 200 microns). The pictures was taken using a polarizing optical microscope without an analyzer.
Jury comment: I chose this, simply because I thought that it is interesting. There is a certain periodicity in the formation of the filaments from the surrounding round capillary wall. Interestingly, the surface of the liquid crystal also shows the periodic morphology of a peculiar complex structure. Are there any important insights into the physical properties of the Ntb phase hidden in the picture?