Related papers: Pseudo-Casimir interactions across nematic films w…
We derive exact results for the fluctuations in energy produced by microscopic disorder in near-crystalline athermal systems. Our formalism captures the heterogeneity in the elastic energy of polydispersed soft disks in energy-minimized…
In the current work we present the complete results for the measurement of normal Casimir force between shallow and smooth sinusoidally corrugated gold coated sphere and a plate at various angles between the corrugations using an atomic…
We show that two-dimensional bidisperse assemblies of colloids with strictly repulsive interactions exhibit stripe, cluster, and partially crystallized states when driven over a quenched random substrate. The nonequilibrium states on a…
We study the effects of distinct types of quenched disorder in the contact process (CP) with a competitive dynamics on bipartite sublattices. In the model, the particle creation depends on its first and second neighbors and the extinction…
Among the various kinds of effective forces in soft matter, the spatial range and the direction of the so-called critical Casimir force - which is generated by the enhanced thermal fluctuations close to a continuous phase transition - can…
We consider a two-dimensional system of elongated particles driven over a random quenched disorder landscape. For varied pinning site density, external drive magnitude, and particle elongation, we find a wide variety of dynamic phases,…
We discuss recent experimental and theoretical results on the Casimir force between real material bodies made of different materials. Special attention is paid to calculations of the normal Casimir force acting perpendicular to the surface…
We consider the fluctuation-induced interaction of two thin, rod-like particles or "needles" immersed in a two-dimensional critical fluid of Ising symmetry right at the critical point. Conformally mapping the plane containing the needles…
Particles embedded in a fluctuating interface experience forces and torques mediated by the deformations and by the thermal fluctuations of the medium. Considering a system of two cylinders bound to a fluid membrane we show that the…
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 normal and the lateral Casimir interactions between corrugated ideal metallic plates in the presence of an amplifying or an absorptive dielectric slab has been studied by the path-integral quantization technique. The effect of the…
The interplay between disorder and interactions can dramatically influence the physical properties of thin-film superconductors. In the most extreme case, strong disorder is able to suppress superconductivity as an insulating phase emerges.…
A self-interacting polymer can undergo an orientational ordering transition, depending on the magnitude of the nematic interaction. The effect of embedding such a polymer into a flexible surface on this transition is studied on the…
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…
We study the equilibrium properties of an Ising model on a disordered random network where the disorder can be quenched or annealed. The network consists of four-fold coordinated sites connected via variable length one-dimensional chains.…
Nematic interfaces are thin fluid films, ideally two-dimensional, endowed with an in-plane degenerate nematic order. In this letter we examine a generalisation of the classical Plateau problem to an axisymmetric nematic interface bounded by…
Motivated by recent experimental observations [U. Delabre et al, Langmuir 24, 3998, 2008] we reconsider an instability of ultrathin nematic films, spread on liquid substrates. Within a continuum elastic theory of liquid crystals, in the…
In equilibrium, disorder conspires with topological defects to redefine the ordered states of matter in systems as diverse as crystals, superconductors and liquid crystals. Far from equilibrium, however, the consequences of quenched…
We study azimuthal gliding of the easy axis that occurs in nematic liquid crystals brought in contact with the photoaligned azo-dye film under the action of reorienting UV light combined with an in-plane electric field. For irradiation with…
We study the effect of monomer immobilization (quenching) on the orientation of the lamellae in symmetric diblock copolymer thin films with neutrally wetting surfaces. A small fraction of the monomers immediately next to the solid substrate…