Non-linear optical measurement of the twist elastic constant in thermotropic and DNA lyotropic chiral nematics

Throughout the whole history of liquid crystals science, the balancing of intrinsic elasticity with
coupling to external forces has been the key strategy for most application and investigation. While the
coupling of the optical field to the nematic director is at the base of a wealth of thoroughly described
optical effects, a significant variety of geometries and materials have not been considered yet. Here
we show that by adopting a simple cell geometry and measuring the optically induced birefringence,
we can readily extract the twist elastic coefficient K22 of thermotropic and lyotropic chiral nematics
(N*). The value of K22 we obtain for chiral doped 5CB thermotropic N* well matches those reported
in the literature. With this same strategy, we could determine for the first time K22 of the N* phase of
concentrated aqueous solutions of DNA oligomers, bypassing the limitations that so far prevented
measuring the elastic constants of this class of liquid crystalline materials. The present study also
enlightens the significant nonlinear optical response of DNA liquid crystals.