ILCS

The International Liquid Crystal Society

Featured Liquid Crystal Picture Art of the Month

August 2022

©Deepak Verma

Colorful flower petals

Description

The micrograph is obtained in a chiral bent-core liquid crystal filled in a planar geometry under the polarizing optical microscope in crossed polarized state. The different colors correspond to the different twisted states of the twist grain boundary phase (TGBA).

Author

Deepak Verma is a research scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in India, where he is working on his Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Aloka Sinha. Deepak obtained his master’s degree from Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science & Technology, Haryana, India. His thesis' major objective is to explore the chiral structures of liquid crystalline materials using polymer systems and nanodoping. He is a Junior Research Fellow (DST-INSPIRE) in the Department since 2019. He expresses his gratitude to the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, for financing the fellowship and to the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, for creating a supportive environment.

Contact Email: vermadeepak154(at)gmail.com
Webpage of Professor Aloka Sinha: https://web.iitd.ac.in/~aloka/
Personal homepage: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Deepak-Verma-49

Jury comment

This texture corresponds to the mesophase formed by a chiral bent-core liquid crystal compound. It represents characteristic defects of one of the chiral mesophases, the twist grain boundary A (TGBA), where different color domains arise due to different twist states. The microphotography is highly attractive from an aesthetic and artistic point of view, very suggestive and somehow shows the other side of sensory perception - "realities and interests” - that was highlighted on the occasion of June 2022 ILCS liquid crystal picture.