Biaxial model of cholesteric liquid crystals

Abstract
A model for cholesteric liquid crystals with biaxial molecules is introduced. It is found that the biaxial order parameter for such systems is of order (q0a)2 where a is a molecular length and q0=2πp where p is the helical pitch. The generalized susceptibility is calculated and is found to predict a fluctuation instability as in uniaxial cholesterics.