Manipulation of the nanoscale heliconical structure of a twist-bend nematic material with polarized light

The effect of polarized violet light on the alignment and the heliconical pitch of a liquid crystal dimer containing both sulfur atoms and an azo linkage has been studied by tender resonant x-ray scattering. The results provide evidence of the manipulation of the nanoscale heliconical structure by polarized light. In addition to the bulk alignment of the heliconical nanostructure, the value of the heliconical pitch can be varied as well. After turning the light on, an increase of the pitch is observed in two steps. The increase with a subsecond timescale is attributed to the reduced heliconical order related to trans-cis photoisomerization. This is followed by a smaller increase over a 10-s timescale, which is likely related to the annihilation of defects. After turning the light off, the pitch first decreases within a few seconds to a value larger than the original (before illumination), and then relaxes further on a much longer (hours) timescale.