Frustration and Related Topology of Blue Phases

Abstract

Blue Phases remained up to very recent years quite mysterious. First observations were done at the end of the last century by Reinitzer in 1888 and by Lehmann in 1906. The precise nature of these phases was a puzzling problem. At present it is firmly established that they are real phases and not textures of other phases. These Blue Phases are observed in a very narrow range of temperature in between the isotropic and the cholesteric phases. Up to now, three different Blue Phases have been discovered. They appear in the following order by increasing the temperature: