Sculpting stable structures in pure liquids
Abstract
Pure liquids in thermodynamic equilibrium are structurally homogeneous. In liquid crystals, flow and light pulses are used to create reconfigurable domains with polar order. Moreover, through careful engineering of concerted microfluidic flows and localized opto-thermal fields, it is possible to achieve complete control over the nucleation, growth, and shape of such domains. Experiments, theory, and simulations indicate that the resulting structures can be stabilized indefinitely, provided the liquids are maintained in a controlled non-equilibrium state. The resulting sculpted liquids could find applications in microfluidic devices for selective encapsulation of solutes and particles into optically active compartments that interact with external stimuli.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2001.00552,
title = {Sculpting stable structures in pure liquids},
author = {Tadej Emeršič and Rui Zhang and Žiga Kos and Simon Čopar and Natan Osterman and Juan J. de Pablo and Uroš Tkalec},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.00552},
year = {2020}
}