Research Article

Polar Liquid Crystal Elastomers Cross Linked Far from Thermodynamic Phase Transitions: Dislocation Loops in Smectic Clusters

Figure 13

Sketch of the dislocation model that conserves layer spacing. X marks where a loop enters the page and ◯ where it emerges from the page. Packets of layers associated with each loop are decorrelated ROM layer packets associated with other loops. As , more dislocation loops form leading eventually to no correlated layers in the sample, or, in other words, nematic order.
752060.fig.0013