Related papers: Pattern Switching and Polarizability for Colloids …
Ferroelectric materials exhibit a switchable, spontaneous polarization at the unit cell level--an attractive property utilized in many emerging technologies including, among others, high-density memory storage, low-power transistors, and…
We have experimentally and theoretically shown that the circularly polarized beam bearing singly charged optical vortex propagating through a uniaxial crystal can be split after focusing into the radially and azimuthally polarized beams in…
Recent studies in the collective behavior of active colloids have shown that a global polar order may emerge due to long-ranged chemo-repulsive interactions between them. Here, we report the role of pinning disorder in the flocking…
Self-assembly of colloidal particles due to elastic interactions in nematic liquid crystals promises tunable composite materials and can be guided by exploiting surface functionalization, geometric shape and topology, though these means of…
The interplay between shape anisotropy and directed long-range interactions enables the self-assembly of complex colloidal structures. As a recent highlight, ellipsoidal particles polarized in an external electric field were observed to…
We demonstrate a variety of ordered patterns, including hexagonal structures and chains, formed by colloidal particles (droplets) at the free surface of a nematic liquid crystal (LC). The surface placement introduces a new type of particle…
The static polarizability of cylindrical systems is shown to have a strong dependence on a uniform magnetic field applied parallel to the tube axis. This dependence is demonstrated by performing exact numerical diagonalizations of simple…
Optical bistability of exciton polaritons in semiconductor microcavities is a promising platform for digital optical devices. Steady states of coherently driven polaritons can be toggled in tens of picoseconds by a short external pulse of…
Polaritonic crystals - periodic structures where the hybrid light-matter waves called polaritons can form Bloch states - promise a deeply subdiffractional nanolight manipulation and enhanced light-matter interaction. In particular,…
We report a new mechanism for the formation of localized states, which takes place without front propagation. Correspondingly, localized structures appear as solitary states, displaying a behavior of single independent cells. The phenomenon…
We theoretically investigate the glass-transition problem for a quasi-two-dimensional colloidal dense suspension modulated by a one-dimensional periodic external potential as imposed by interfering laser beams. Relying on a mode-coupling…
Colloidal crystals formed by size-asymmetric binary particles co-assemble into a wide variety of colloidal compounds with lattices akin to ionic crystals. Recently, a transition from a compound phase with a sublattice of small particles to…
We show that conical intersections can be created in laboratory coordinates by dressing a parabolic trap for ultracold atoms or molecules with a combination of optical and static magnetic fields. The resulting ring trap can support…
We numerically investigate collective ordering and disordering effects for vortices in type-II superconductors interacting with square and triangular substrate arrays under a dc drive that is slowly rotated with respect to the fixed…
The flow-driven transport of interacting micron-sized particles occurs in many soft matter systems spanning from the translocation of proteins to moving emulsions in microfluidic devices. Here we combine experiments and theory to…
Molecular crystals are a flexible platform to induce novel electronic phases. Due to the weak forces between molecules, intermolecular distances can be varied over relatively larger ranges than interatomic distances in atomic crystals. On…
We show that a rich variety of dynamic phases can be realized for mono- and bidisperse mixtures of interacting colloids under the influence of a symmetric flashing periodic substrate. With the addition of dc or ac drives, phase locking,…
The interaction of polarized light with photonic crystals exhibit unique features due to its sub-wavelength nature on the surface and the periodic variation of refractive index in the depth of the crystals. Here, we present a detailed study…
Non-invasive optical manipulation of particles has emerged as a powerful and versatile tool for biological study and nanotechnology. In particular, trapping and rotation of cells, cell nuclei and sub-micron particles enables unique…
We present a new type of phase-change behavior relevant for information storage applications, that can be observed in 2D systems with cluster-forming ability. The temperature-based control of the ordering in 2D particle systems depends on…