Theory of chiral defects in Langmuir monolayers

Thin films often exhibit a spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry. This symmetry breaking can occur on two distinct length scales. On a microscopic scale, nonchiral molecules can pack in a chiral structure. On a macroscopic scale, a striped texture can buckle to form a spiral. Using continuum elastic theory and Monte Carlo simulations, we predict the defect textures that result from macroscopic chiral symmetry breaking and contrast them with earlier predictions for microscopic symmetry breaking. We identify experiments in which each type of symmetry breaking occurs.