Wrinkles and splay conspire to give positive disclinations negative curvature

Elisabetta A. Matsumoto, Daniel A. Vega, Aldo D. Pezzutti, Nicolás A. García, Paul M. Chaikin, Richard A. Register

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Recently, there has been renewed interest in the coupling between geometry and topological defects in crystalline and striped systems. Standard lore dictates that positive disclinations are associated with positive Gaussian curvature, whereas negative disclinations give rise to negative curvature. Here, we present a diblock copolymer system exhibiting a striped columnar phase that preferentially forms wrinkles perpendicular to the underlying stripes. In freestanding films this wrinkling behavior induces negative Gaussian curvature to form in the vicinity of positive disclinations.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)12639-12644
    Number of pages6
    JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
    Volume112
    Issue number41
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Oct 13 2015

    Keywords

    • Diblock copolymer
    • Disclinations and curvature
    • Free-standing membrane
    • Smectic
    • Wrinkling instability

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General

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