Related papers: Breaking the Rules for Topological Defects: Smecti…
The known ground state of ultrathin smectic films confined to the surface of a sphere is described by four +1/2 defects assembled on a great circle and a director which follows geodesic lines. Using a simple perturbative approach we show…
The concepts of topology have a profound impact on physics research spanning the fields of condensed matter, photonics and acoustics and predicting topological states that provide unprecedented versatility in routing and control of waves of…
Phase separation of sequence-disordered liquid crystalline polymers, a promising class of technological and biological relevance, is studied by field theory, and thermodynamic mechanisms responsible for orientational ordering observed in…
We examine the statics and dynamics of particles with repulsive Yukawa interactions in the presence of a two-dimensional triangular substrate for fillings of up to twelve particles per potential minimum. We term the ordered states Yukawa…
We investigate the mechanism by which topological defects form in first order phase transitions with a charged order parameter. We show how thick superconductor vortices and heavy cosmic strings form by trapping of magnetic flux. In an…
We adapt Vertex models to understand the physical origin of the formation of long-range ordered structures in repulsive soft particles. The model incorporates contributions from the volume and surface area of each particle. Sampling using…
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…
Two dimensional suspensions of spherical colloids subject to periodic external fields exhibit a rich variety of molecular crystalline phases. We study in simulations the ground state configurations of dimeric and trimeric systems, that are…
Composed of microscopic layers that stack along one direction while maintaining fluid-like positional disorder within layers, smectics are excellent systems for exploring topology, defects and geometric memory in complex confining…
A phenomenological free energy model is proposed to describe the behavior of smectic liquid crystals, an intermediate phase that exhibits orientational order and layering at the molecular scale. Advantageous properties render the functional…
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…
Frustration is a powerful mechanism in condensed matter systems, driving both order and co plexity. In smectics, the frustration between macroscopic chirality and equally spaced layers generates textures characterised by a proliferation of…
The world of two-dimensional crystals is of great significance for the design and study of structural and functional materials with novel properties. The world of two-dimensional crystals is of great significance for the design and study of…
Surface probes such as scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) have detected complex patterns at the nanoscale, indicative of electronic inhomogeneity, in a variety of high temperature superconductors. In cuprates, the pattern formation is…
Spatial ordering of matter elicits exotic properties sometimes absent from a material's constituents. A few highly mineralised natural materials achieve high toughness through delocalised damage, whereas synthetic particulate composites…
The principles behind the sharp, singular structures in a crumpled sheet are well understood. Here we discuss more general ways of exploiting such sharp structures to control the shape of a sheet by deforming or forcing it elsewhere. Often,…
Topological point defects on orientationally ordered spheres, and on deformable fluid vesicles have been partly motivated by their potential applications in creating super-atoms with directional bonds through functionalization of the…
Grain boundaries in extremely confined colloidal smectics possess a topological fine structure with coexisting nematic and tetratic symmetry of the director field. An alternative way to approach the problem of smectic topology is via the…
X-ray tomography is performed to acquire 3D images of crumpled aluminum foils. We develop an algorithm to trace out the labyrinthian paths in the three perpendicular cross sections of the data matrices. The tangent-tangent correlation…
Structural defects in a crystal are responsible for the "two length-scale" behavior, in which a sharp central peak is superimposed over a broad peak in critical diffuse X-ray scattering. We have previously measured the scaling behavior of…