Periodic buckling of smectic-A tubular filaments in an isotropic phase -: art. no. 021701

Periodic buckling of smectic-A tubular filaments in an isotropic phase has been investigated both experimentally and theoretically in the binary mixture of octyloxycyanobiphenyl and dodecyl alcohol. As the mixture is cooled, straight filaments become unstable and continuously buckle by elongating at a constant periodicity. An analytical solution to the minimization of the curvature elastic energy of the smectic-A filament has been shown, and is consistent with the shapes of the buckled filaments. In addition, the dependence of the load on the length of the filament has been numerically calculated, and the critical buckling load of the smectic-A filament has been found to be of the order of 1 pN.