Extended Data Fig. 10: Stability analysis of phases with partial positional order.
From: Thermally reconfigurable monoclinic nematic colloidal fluids
a, Schematic showing the principal reference frames, vectors and angles. b, Phase diagrams with coordinate axes θne versus ρ (left column) and T versus ρ (right column) of the molecular–colloidal LC for higher (0.002; top row) and lower (0.001; bottom row) values of the elastic energy Ξel (renormalized in units of thermal energy) that quantifies the relative strength of elastic attractions with respect to steric repulsion (Supplementary Information). Red-shaded regions represent the monoclinic smectic phase, consistent with the experimental diagram (Fig. 2a). For lower Ξel (weak elastic interactions), the phases with partial positional order appear at higher disk concentrations owing to stronger electrostatic repulsions between the disks. c, Theoretical estimation of the smectic layer spacing σsm versus T in the monoclinic smectic phase.
