Workshop 2025: Flexoelectric polarization effect on skyrmions in chiral liquid crystals

Session Information

Location: Lecture room Schay
Day: Wednesday, 14 May
Time: 16:30 - 17:00
Chairperson: Sonja Franke-Arnold

Presentation Details

Presentation Type: Oral presentation
Title: Flexoelectric polarization effect on skyrmions in chiral liquid crystals
Abstract: The presence of topological defects in liquid crystals cause orientational distortions, leading to non-uniform strain.
This non-uniform strain generates an electric polarization response due to the flexoelectric effect, which induces an internal (flexo-)electric field.
Associated to this flexoelectric field is an electrostatic self-energy, which has a back-reaction on the director field.
Calculation of this internal flexoelectric field and its resulting back-reaction on the director field is complicated.
We propose a method to do such, adapting a method recently developed to study the magnetostatic self-interaction effect on skyrmions in chiral ferromagnets.
Bloch skyrmions in chiral magnets are solenoidal and are unaffected by the magnetostatic self-interaction.
However, Bloch skyrmions in liquid crystals yield non-solenoidal flexoelectric polarization and, thus, are affected by the electrostatic self-interaction.
I will explore the main differences between the effect of electrostatic self-interactions on skyrmions in chiral magnets and chiral liquid crystals.

Presenter

Dr Paul Leask
KTH Royal Institute of Technology | Sweden

Authors

1. Paul Leask | Department of Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
2. Martin Speight | School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, England, UK