Pe. Cladis et al., PATTERN-FORMATION AT THE TRAVELING LIQUID-CRYSTAL TWIST-GRAIN-BOUNDARY-SMECTIC-A INTERFACE, Physical review letters, 72(2), 1994, pp. 226-229
The different patterns observed at a twist-grain-boundary- (TGB(A-)) s
mectic-A (A) interface moving in a temperature gradient are quantified
by measuring interface arclength scaling between two lengths characte
rizing these patterns. The ragged melting TGB(A)-A interface results f
rom the growth of TGB(A) filaments into oriented A. We attribute the d
estruction of TGB(A) when A grows into TGB(A) to the second-order natu
re of the TGB(A)-cholesteric transition. These results are interpreted
within a defect lattice model.