Molecules which form liquid crystalline phases are usually anisotropic. This means that they have one dimension that is substantially longer (or shorter) than the other two. Additionally, if those molecules have dipole moments which are perpendicular to the molecular axis, they can form a very rich set of phases. Here we show the anti-phase bilayers that form in our simulations of ellipsoidal molecules which have two transverse dipoles. One is located in the central part of the molecule, and the other is at one end of the molecules. The terminal (end) dipoles cluster together to create the anti-phase bilayer structure shown here. The orientation of the molecular dipole is indicated by the blue/gold coloring, and the location of the terminal dipole is shown as a white patch at the end of each molecule.

Research courtesy Jayashree Saha. Image rendered by Dan Gezelter