Topological transformations of Hopf solitons in chiral ferromagnets and liquid crystals

Tai, Jung-Shen B.; Ackerman, Paul J.; Smalyukh, Ivan I.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1716887115

Title: Topological transformations of Hopf solitons in chiral ferromagnets and liquid crystals

Journal Article · Wed Jan 17 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716887115· OSTI ID:1417234

Tai, Jung-Shen B. ^[1]; Ackerman, Paul J. ^[1]; Smalyukh, Ivan I. ^[2]

Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309,, Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309,
Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309,, Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309,, Materials Science and Engineering Program and Soft Materials Research Center, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309,, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309

Liquid crystals are widely known for their facile responses to external fields, which forms a basis of the modern information display technology. However, switching of molecular alignment field configurations typically involves topologically trivial structures, although singular line and point defects often appear as short-lived transient states. Here, we demonstrate electric and magnetic switching of nonsingular solitonic structures in chiral nematic and ferromagnetic liquid crystals. These topological soliton structures are characterized by Hopf indices, integers corresponding to the numbers of times that closed-loop-like spatial regions (dubbed “preimages”) of two different single orientations of rod-like molecules or magnetization are linked with each other. We show that both dielectric and ferromagnetic response of the studied material systems allow for stabilizing a host of topological solitons with different Hopf indices. Furthermore the field transformations during such switching are continuous when Hopf indices remain unchanged, even when involving transformations of preimages, but discontinuous otherwise.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: ER46921; SC0010305

OSTI ID:: 1417234

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1511027

Journal Information:: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Vol. 115 Journal Issue: 5; ISSN 0027-8424

Publisher:: Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 38 works

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