Freeze-Fracture Electron-Microscope Observations of the Blue Phase III

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Abstract
Transmission-electron microscopy of chiral 4-(2-methylpentylphenyl)-4′-hexyloxybenzoate (CE4) quenched from its cholesteric and blue phases (BP) I and III are presented. Images of cholesteric and BP I are consistent with an earlier study of similar compounds. CE4 quenched from its BP III is a spaghettilike tangle of filamentary objects of 10- to 50-nm diameter and lengths of 0.1 to 1 μm. These are likely double-twist cylinders in a liquidlike arrangement, melted from their lattice structure in the BP I and II. BP III apparently has a basic, double-twisted structure whose sense and length scale correspond to BP I and BP II, but without the latter's long-range periodicity.