L. Longa et al., LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE BLUE PHASE-III AND STRUCTURES OF BROKEN ICOSAHEDRAL SYMMETRY, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics, 48(3), 1993, pp. 2296-2299
The structure of the liquid-crystalline blue phase III (BPIII) is stil
l unknown and remains one of the mysteries of liquid-crystal physics.
We take all icosahedral space-group symmetries of the reciprocal space
for BPIII and study their thermodynamic stability within the frame of
an extended de Gennes-Ginburg-Landau free-energy expansion. The stabi
lity of the icosahedral structures is compared with that of the choles
teric phase and of the cubic blue phases. Strikingly, even though the
extended model contains three extra parameters, we could not detect a
region of parameter space where icosahedral structures are absolutely
stable just below the isotropic phase.