Related papers: Colloidal templating at a cholesteric - oil interf…
Colloidal interactions in nematic liquid crystals can be described as interactions between elastic multipoles that depend on particle shape, topology, chirality, boundary conditions and induced topological defects. Here, we describe a…
Disclinations lines play a key role in many physical processes, from the fracture of materials to the formation of the early universe. Achieving versatile control over disclinations is key to developing novel electro-optical devices,…
Topological insulators subject to a time-symmetry-breaking perturbation are predicted to display a magneto-electric effect that causes the electric and magnetic induction fields to mix at the material's surface. This effect induces…
Colloidal particles hold promise for mobilizing and removing trapped immiscible fluids from porous media, with implications for key energy and water applications. Most studies focus on accomplishing this goal using particles that can…
Dispersed colloidal particles within a suspension can aggregate and spontaneously self-organize into a robust, percolating structure known as a gel. These network-like structures are prevalent in nature and play a critical role in many…
Most studies on melting under confinement focus only on the solid and liquid melt phases. Despite of its ubiquity, contributions from the capillary interface (liquid / vapor interface) are often neglected. In this study the melting behavior…
We systematically study the relationship between equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase diagrams of a system of short-ranged attractive colloids. Using Monte Carlo and Brownian dynamics simulations we find a window of enhanced…
The sticking of a soft polystyrene colloidal particle to a planar glass plate was studied by a microrheological technique using an optical tweezer to trap the particle and a piezoelectric-stage to position the plate and to sinusoidally…
We show quantitatively that tiny amounts of copolymer that decorate a oil/water interfaces can greatly enhance the stability of swollen surfactant hexagonal phases, comprising oil tubes regularly arranged in a water matrix. Such soft…
We experimentally demonstrate the emergence of directional rotation in thermally active-passive colloidal structures under optical confinement. The observed handedness of rotation of the structure can be controlled by changing the relative…
The evaporation of a droplet induces variety of ordered patterns near the contact line between the droplet and a substrate. This pattern formation involves both the behavior of colloidal suspensions and interactions between a droplet and a…
Abundant in nature, colloids also find increasingly important applications in science and technology, ranging from direct probing of kinetics in crystals and glasses to fabrication of third-generation quantum-dot solar cells. Because…
Helices are not generic outcomes of polymer collapse. Collapsed conformations of semiflexible polymers with isotropic attractions typically form globules, toroids, or rod-like structures, as seen in simulations and described by…
Filamentary structures are ubiquitously seen in the interstellar medium. The concentrated molecular mass in the filaments allows fragmentation to occur in a shorter timescale than the timescale of the global collapse. Such hierarchical…
Two nematic shells brought in contact coalesce in order to reduce their interfacial tension. This process proceeds through the creation of a liquid neck-like bridge through which the encapsulated fluid flows. Following this topological…
There is mounting evidence indicating that relaxation dynamics in liquids approaching their glass transition not only becomes increasingly cooperative (1,2) but the relaxing regions also become more compact in shape(3-7). While the surface…
The phase behavior of colloidal particles embedded in a binary fluid is influenced by wetting layers surrounding each particle. The free energy of the fluid film depends on its morphology, i.e., on size, shape and connectivity. Under rather…
Bacterial attachment to a fluid interface can lead to the formation of a film with physicochemical properties that evolve with time. We study the time evolution of interface (micro)mechanics for interfaces between oil and bacterial…
We study two-dimensional equilibrium configurations of nematic liquid crystal (NLC) director in a cell confined between two parallel surfaces: a planar surface and a spatially modulated one. The relief of the modulated surface is described…
We study cholesteric order in liquid crystal shells with planar degenerate anchoring. We observe that the bipolar and radial configurations intensively reported for bulk droplets have a higher degree of complexity when the liquid crystal is…