Related papers: Liquid crystal cells with "dirty" substrates
We study stability and distortions of liquid crystal nematic order in a cell with a random heterogeneous substrate. Modeling this system as a bulk xy model with quenched disorder confined to a surface, we find that nematic order is…
We explore the smectic liquid crystal order in a cell with a "dirty" substrate imposing random pinnings. Within harmonic elasticity we find a subtle three-dimensional surface disorder-driven transition into a pinned smectic-glass,…
We study smectic-liquid-crystal order in a cell with a heterogeneous substrate imposing surface random positional and orientational pinnings. Proposing a minimal random elastic model, we demonstrate that, for a thick cell, the smectic state…
We demonstrate that the arbitrarily weak quenched disorder on the surface of a system of continuous symmetry destroys long range order in the bulk, and, instead, quasi-long range order emerges. Correlation functions are calculated exactly…
We use a random pinning procedure to investigate stable glassy states associated with large deviations of the activity in a model glass-former. We pin particles both from active (equilibrium) configurations and from stable (inactive) glassy…
The effect of surface roughness on the structure of liquid crystalline fluids near solid substrates is studied by Monte Carlo simulations. The liquid crystal is modelled as a fluid of soft ellipsoidal molecules and the substrate is modelled…
Disordered systems like liquids, gels, glasses, or granular materials are not only ubiquitous in daily life and in industrial applications but they are also crucial for the mechanical stability of cells or the transport of chemical and…
We discuss the behavior of a crystalline surface with a disordered substrate. We focus on the possible existence of a {\em super-rough} glassy phase, with height-height correlation functions which vary as the square logarithm of the…
The discrete Gaussian model for the surface of a crystal deposited on a disordered substrate is studied by Monte Carlo simulations. A continuous transition is found from a phase with a thermally-induced roughness to a glassy one in which…
Disordered systems like liquids, gels, glasses, or granular materials are not only ubiquitous in daily life and in industrial applications but they are also crucial for the mechanical stability of cells or the transport of chemical and…
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…
We investigate the dynamics of cellular solidification patterns using three-dimensional phase-field simulations. The cells can organize into stable hexagonal patterns or exhibit unsteady evolutions. We identify the relevant secondary…
Depinning of two-dimensional liquid ridges and three-dimensional drops on an inclined substrate is studied within the lubrication approximation. The structures are pinned to wetting heterogeneities arising from variations of the strength of…
Liquid crystal layers sandwiched between a reference plate and a photosensitive substrate were investigated. We focused on the reverse geometry, where the cell was illuminated by a laser beam from the reference side. In planar cells…
Ordered phases on curved substrates experience a complex interplay of ordering and intrinsic curvature, commonly producing frustration and singularities. This is an especially important issue in crystals as ever-smaller scale materials are…
How the vortex lattice orders at long range in a layered superconductor with weak point pinning centers is studied through a duality analysis of the corresponding frustrated XY model. Vortex-glass order emerges out of the vortex liquid…
We use a lattice model of a ternary mixture containing saturated and unsaturated lipids with cholesterol (Chol), to study the structural properties characterizing the coexistence between the liquid-disordered and liquid-ordered phases.…
The topological order of single-crystal Bi and its surface states on the (111) surface are studied in detail based on empirical tight-binding (TB) calculations. New TB parameters are presented that are used to calculate the surface states…
A theory for surface transitions in the presence of a disordered pinning potential is presented. Arbitrary disorder correlations are treated in the framework of a dynamical functional renormalization group. The roughening transition, where…
We review the depinning and nonequilibrium phases of collectively interacting particle systems driven over random or periodic substrates. This type of system is relevant to vortices in type-II superconductors, sliding charge density waves,…