Related papers: Capillary and anchoring effects in thin hybrid nem…
We report on the capillary-driven levelling of a topographical perturbation at the surface of a free-standing liquid nanofilm. The width of a stepped surface profile is found to evolve as the square root of time. The hydrodynamic model is…
We explore reshaping of nematoelastic films upon imbibing an isotropic solvent under conditions when isotropic and nematic phases coexist. The structure of the interphase boundary is computed taken into account the optimal nematic…
We propose a simple surface potential favoring the planar degenerate anchoring of nematic liquid crystals, i.e., the tendency of the molecules to align parallel to one another along any direction parallel to the surface. We show that, at…
We simulate antiferromagnetic thin films. Dipole-dipole and antiferromagnetic exchange interactions as well as uniaxial and quadrupolar anisotropies are taken into account. Various phases unfold as the corresponding parameters, J, D and C,…
Dynamic simulations of the isotropic-nematic phase transformation of liquid crystal droplets under homeotropic anchoring are found to predict chiral symmetry-breaking dynamics. These observations occur when using material parameters for…
Motivated by recent experiments on the rod-like virus bacteriophage fd, confined to circular and annular domains, we present a theoretical study of structural transitions in these geometries. Using the continuum theory of nematic liquid…
Although the wetting films are similar in many aspects to other thin liquid films, there are some differences in their behavior, too. In contrast to soap and emulsion films, whose surfaces are homogeneous, solid substrates of wetting films…
We find solutions that describe the levelling of a thin fluid film, comprising a non-Newtonian power-law fluid, that coats a substrate and evolves under the influence of surface tension. We consider the evolution from both periodic and…
Combining molecular simulation, Onsager theory and the elastic description of nematic liquid crystals, we study the dependence of the nematic liquid crystal elastic constants and the zenithal surface anchoring coefficient on the value of…
The dynamics of amphiphilic films deposited on a solid surface is analyzed for the case when shear oscillations of the solid surface are excited. The two cases of surface- and bulk shear waves are studied with film exposed to gas or to a…
We present a combined theoretical and experimental study of the buckling of a thin film wrapped around a sphere under the action of capillary forces. A rigid sphere is coated with a wetting liquid, and then wrapped by a thin film into an…
The relaxation dynamics of thermal capillary waves for nanoscale liquid films on anisotropic-slip substrates are investigated, using both molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and a Langevin model. The anisotropy of slip on substrates is…
In recent years, slippery surfaces have attracted significant interest due to their excellent liquid-repellent properties and their potential in diverse commercial applications. Such surfaces are prepared by coating functionalized solid…
We theoretically investigate the threshold for the director reorientation from the homeotropic state to the hybrid homeotropic-planar state and vice versa in a cell filled with a flexoelectric nematic liquid crystal (NLC) subjected to an…
In vitro reconstituted active systems, such as the ATP-driven microtubule bundle suspension developed by the Dogic group, provide a fertile testing ground for elucidating the phenomenology of active liquid crystalline states. Controlling…
An important challenge in the field of topological materials is to carefully disentangle the electronic transport contribution of the topological surface states from that of the bulk. For Bi$_2$Te$_3$ topological insulator samples, bulk…
The motion of a gas-liquid interface along a solid wall is influenced by the capillary forces resulting from the interface's shape and its interaction with the solid, where it forms a dynamic contact angle. Capillary models play a…
This study explores how molecular shape changes influence the phase behavior of liquid crystals, particularly the nematic (N) phase of 5CB, through all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results demonstrate that molecular shape…
Density functional theory is used to study colloidal hard-rod fluids near an individual right-angled wedge or edge as well as near a hard wall which is periodically patterned with rectangular barriers. The Zwanzig model, in which the…
Activity in nematics drives interfacial flows that lead to preferential alignment that is tangential or planar for extensile systems (pushers) and perpendicular or homeotropic for contractile ones (pullers). This alignment is known as…