Dynamics of a sheared twist bend nematic liquid crystal

Abstract

We study the flow behaviour of a twist-bend nematic $(N_{TB})$ liquid crystal. It shows three distinct shear stress ($\sigma$) responses in a certain range of temperatures and shear rates ($\dot{\gamma}$). In Region-I, $\sigma\sim\sqrt{\dot{\gamma}}$, in region-II, the stress shows a plateau, characterised by a power law $\sigma\sim{\dot{\gamma}}^{\alpha}$, where $\alpha\sim0.1-0.4$ and in region-III, $\sigma\sim\dot{\gamma}$. With increasing shear rate, $\sigma$ changes continuously from region-I to II, whereas it changes discontinuously with a hysteresis from region-II to III. In the plateau (region-II), we observe a dynamic stress fluctuations, exhibiting regular, periodic and quasiperiodic oscillations under the application of steady shear. The observed spatiotemporal dynamics in our experiments are close to those were predicted theoretically in sheared nematogenic fluids.