Related papers: Breaking the Rules for Topological Defects: Smecti…
Many systems in nature and the synthetic world involve ordered arrangements of units on two-dimensional surfaces. We review here the fundamental role payed by both the topology of the underlying surface and its detailed curvature. Topology…
Smectic liquid crystals are materials formed by stacking deformable, fluid layers. Though smectics prefer to have flat, uniformly-spaced layers, boundary conditions can impose curvature on the layers. Since the layer spacing and curvature…
Smectic orders on curved substrates can be described by differential forms of rank one (1-forms), whose geometric meaning is the differential of the local phase field of density modulation. The exterior derivative of 1-form is the local…
We study the evolution from a liquid to a crystal phase in two-dimensional curved space. At early times, while crystal seeds grow preferentially in regions of low curvature, the lattice frustration produced in regions with high curvature is…
When thermal energies are weak, two dimensional lamellar structures confined on a curved substrate display complex patterns arising from the competition between layer bending and compression in the presence of geometric constraints. We…
Smectic order on arbitrary curved substrate can be described by a differential form of rank one (1-form), whose geometric meaning is the differential of the local phase field of the density modulation. The exterior derivative of 1-form is…
Many physical systems involve two types of orientational order, which are coupled together. For example, ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals have coupled polar and nematic order, and tilted hexatic phases have coupled polar and hexatic…
We report on a construction for smectic blue phases, which have quasi-long range smectic translational order as well as three dimensional crystalline order. Our proposed structures fill space by adding layers on top of a minimal surface,…
Self-assembly of ordered nanometer-scale patterns is interesting in itself, but its practical value depends on the ability to predict and control pattern formation. In this paper we demonstrate theoretically and numerically that engineering…
Order-disorder transitions take place in many physical systems, but observing them in detail in real materials is difficult. In two- or quasi-two-dimensional systems, the transition has been studied by computer simulations and…
We investigate the growth of two-dimensional (2D) crystals on fluctuating surfaces using a phase field crystal model that is relevant on atomic length and diffusive time scales. Motivated by recent experiments which achieved unprecedented…
Elucidating the interplay of stress and geometry is a fundamental scientific question arising in multiple fields. In this work, we investigate the geometric frustration of crystalline caps confined on the sphere in both elastic and plastic…
We experimentally investigate the nature of 2D phase transitions in a quasi-2D granular fluid. Using a surface decorated with periodically spaced dimples we observe interfacial tension between coexisting liquid and crystal phases.…
A flux liquid can condense into a smectic crystal in a pure layered superconductors with the magnetic field oriented nearly parallel to the layers. If the smectic order is commensurate with the layering, this crystal is {\sl stable} to…
In this work the effect of amorphous substrate on crystallization is addressed. By performing Monte-Carlo simulations of solid on solid models we explore the effect of the disorder on crystal growth. The disorder is introduced via local…
We propose a general formalism to characterize orientational frustration of smectic liquid crystals in confinement by interpreting the emerging networks of grain boundaries as objects with a topological charge. In a formal idealization,…
We numerically examine the two-dimensional ordering of a stripe forming system of particles with competing long-range repulsion and short-range attraction in the presence of a quasi-one-dimensional corrugated substrate. As a function of…
Observing and characterizing the complex ordering phenomena of liquid crystals subjected to external constraints constitutes an ongoing challenge for chemists and physicists alike. To elucidate the delicate balance appearing when the…
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,…
Defects in the atomic lattice of solids are sometimes desired. For example, atomic vacancies, single ones or more elaborated defective structures, can generate localized magnetic moments in a non magnetic crystalline lattice. Increasing…