Related papers: On the structure of blue phase III
We study the behaviour of cubic blue phases under shear flow via lattice Boltzmann simulations. We focus on the two experimentally observed phases, Blue Phase I (BPI) and Blue Phase II (BPII). The disclination network of Blue Phase II…
We propose a continuum theory of the liquid-liquid phase separation in an elastic network where phase-separated microscopic droplets rich in one fluid component can form as an interplay of fluids mixing, droplet nucleation, network…
We study the phase behavior of hard spheres confined between two parallel hard plates using extensive computer simulations. We determine the full equilibrium phase diagram for arbitrary densities and plate separations from one to five…
We use full nematohydrodynamic simulations to study the statics and dynamics of monolayers of cholesteric liquid crystals. Using chirality and temperature as control parameters we show that we can recover the two-dimensional blue phases…
Colloidal particles dispersed in liquid crystals can form new materials with tunable elastic and electro-optic properties. In a periodic `blue phase' host, particles should template into colloidal crystals with potential uses in photonics,…
Liquid crystal materials exhibiting up to three nematic phases are reported. Dielectric response measurements show that while the lower temperature nematic phase has ferroelectric order and the highest temperature nematic phase is apolar,…
Various physical structures exhibit a fundamentally probabilistic nature over diverse scales in space and time, to the point that the demarcation line between quantum and classic laws gets blurred. Here, we characterize the probability of…
Topological phases of matter are ubiquitous in crystals, but less is known about their existence in amorphous systems, that lack long-range order. In this perspective, we review the recent progress made on theoretically defining amorphous…
We study the phase behaviour of cholesteric liquid crystal shells with different geometries. We compare the cases of tangential and no anchoring at the surface, focussing on the former case, which leads to a competition between the…
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…
Many solid materials and liquid crystals exhibit geometric frustration, meaning that they have an ideal local structure that cannot fill up space. For that reason, the global phase must be a compromise between the ideal local structure and…
We show theoretically that flexoelectricity stabilizes blue phases in chiral liquid crystals. Induced internal polarization reduces the elastic energy cost of splay and bend deformations surrounding singular lines in the director field. The…
Smectic blue phases (BPSm) are new mesophases of thermotropic liquid crystals, which exhibit a double geometrical frustration: the extension of chirality in three spatial dimensions like the classical blue phases, and helical twist…
The phase-field method has become in recent years the method of choice for simulating microstructural pattern formation during solidification. One of its main advantages is that time-dependent three-dimensional simulations become feasible.…
We propose an experimental scheme to effectively assemble chains of dipolar gases with an uniform length in a multi-layer system. The obtained dipolar chains can form a chain crystal with the system temperature easily controlled by the…
In this paper, we use the cell dynamics method to study the dynamics of phase transformation when three phases exist. The system we study is a two-dimensional system. The system is able to achieve three phases coexistence, which for…
The results of fabrication and characterization of atomic structure of nanocrystalline thin layers of Y2O3 in cubic and monoclinic phases is reported. Experimental data demonstrate crystalline ordering in nanocrystalline films with average…
Dynamical density functional simulations reveal structural aspects of crystal nucleation in undercooled liquids: the first appearing solid is amorphous, which promotes the nucleation of bcc crystals, but suppresses the appearance of the fcc…
Two-dimensional polar liquid crystals have been discovered recently in monolayers of anisotropic molecules. Here, we provide a systematic theoretical description of liquid-crystalline phases for polar particles in two spatial dimensions.…
The basic building blocks of many forms of optical topologies are particle-like singularities in phase and polarisation, giving rise to lines of darkness that weave complex threads in 3D space. Although known for half a century since…