Related papers: Meta-stable nematic pre-ordering in smectic liquid…
We present detailed systematic studies of structural transformations in thin liquid crystal films with the smectic-C to hexatic phase transition. For the first time all possible structures reported in the literature are observed for one…
Studies of nucleation generally focus on the properties of the critical cluster, but the presence of defects within the crystal lattice means that the population of nuclei necessarily evolve through a distribution of pre-critical clusters…
We develop a Landau theory for bend flexoelectricity in liquid crystals of bent-core molecules. In the nematic phase of the model, the bend flexoelectric coefficient increases as we reduce the temperature toward the nematic to polar phase…
Mean-field calculations for the two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a large magnetic field with a partially filled Landau level with index $N\geq 2$ consistently yield ``stripe-ordered'' charge-density wave ground-states, for much the…
We discuss a 3D model describing the time evolution of nematic liquid crystals in the framework of Landau-de Gennes theory, where the natural physical constraints are enforced by a singular free energy bulk potential proposed by J.M. Ball…
We present an effective elastic theory which {\em quantitatively} describes the stripe phase of the two-dimensional electron gas in high Landau levels ($N\geq2$). The dynamical matrix is obtained with remarkably high precision from the…
We study numerically formation of spatial optical solitons in nematic liquid crystals with competing nonlocal nonlinearities. We demonstrate that at the sufficiently high input power the interplay between focusing and thermally induced…
The Landau-Khalatnikov time-dependent equation is applied to describe the crystallization process of the ordered vortex lattice in high temperature superconductors after a sudden application of a magnetic field. Dynamic coexistence of a…
In a nematic gel, the appearance of nematic order is accompanied by a spontaneous elongation of the gel parallel to the nematic director. If such a gel is made chiral, it has a tendency to form a cholesteric helical texture, in which local…
Nematic liquid crystals confined to geometrically as well as chemically patterned substrate on one end and a flat substrate with strong anchoring on the other is studied using non-Boltzmann Monte Carlo methods. We observe significant…
The cubic blue phases of liquid crystals are fascinating and technologically promising examples of hierarchically structured soft materials, comprising ordered networks of defect lines (disclinations) within a liquid crystalline matrix. We…
A four-state model is proposed for description of the sequence of phase transitions in ferroelectric crystals of DMAGaS and DMAAlS type. The ordering processes in the subsystems of DMA groups are considered as a main reason of such…
The premelting of ice is well known, but little is known about how the premelted and solid surfaces convert to each other. In this work, the transition dynamics between two phases are revealed with large-scale molecular dynamics…
We present the phase diagram of a system of mesogenic top-shaped molecules based on the Parsons- Lee density functional theory and Monte Carlo simulation. The molecules are modeled as a hard spherocylinder with a hard sphere embedded in its…
We present a review on the study of metastable silicon, primarily focusing mainly on the aspects of liquid-liquid transition, critical point and phase behaviour, structural and dynamic properties of liquid phase as well as crystal…
Using simulations of hard rods in smectic-A states, we find non-gaussian diffusion and heterogeneous dynamics due to the equilibrium periodic smectic density profiles, which give rise to permanent barriers for layer-to-layer diffusion. This…
Using Monte Carlo simulation methods, we explore the role of molecular shape in the phase behavior of liquid crystals and the electroclinic effect. We study a "bent-rod" mesogen shaped like the letter Z, composed of seven soft spheres…
Electronic-liquid-crystal phases, in which part of the spatial symmetries are broken spontaneously, are considered to play a vital role in interpreting the structure-property relation in strongly-correlated materials. Although…
Using a Becker-D\"oring type model including cluster incorporation, we study the possibility of conversion of stable crystals to metastable crystals in a solution by a periodic change of temperature. At low temperature, both stable and…
We study smectic liquid crystals in random environments, e.g., aerogel. A low temperature analysis reveals that even arbitrarily weak quenched disorder (i.e., arbitrarily low aerogel density) destroys translational (smectic) order. A…