Fd cholesteric

Cholesteric phase of fd in 1 mm diameter cylindrical capilary view under crossed polars. The pitch is about 40 microns. The concentration of virus is about 50 mg/ml.	Freeze fracture electron micrographs of fd in cholesteric phase taken by Pascal Fabre (1996).
This image shows that the pitch is measured over 2 PI rotation of the director indicated by 2 dark and 2 bright bands.	The width of the photo is about 2 virus lengths. The virus is semi-flexible and moves in and out of the fracture plane.

• Cholesteric Phase in Virus Suspensions Z. Dogic and S. Fraden, Langmuir 16, 7820 - 7824 (2000).
• What is the origin of chirality in the cholesteric phase of virus suspensions? E. Grelet and S. Fraden. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 198302 (2003)