Related papers: Ordered interfaces for dual easy axes in liquid cr…
Surface effects could play a dominant role in modifying the natural liquid order. In some cases, the effects of the surface interactions can propagate inwards, and even can interfere with a similar propagation from opposite surfaces. This…
Advent of nematic liquid crystals flows have attracted renewed attention in view of microfluidic transport phenomena. Among various transport processes, electroosmosis stands as one of the efficient flow actuation method through narrow…
Hydrophobically modified polymers are good candidates for the stabilization of liquid interfaces thanks to the high anchoring energy of the hydrophobic parts. In this article we probe the interfacial anchoring of a series of home-made…
We theoretically investigate the threshold for the director reorientation from the homeotropic state to the hybrid homeotropic-planar state and vice versa in a cell filled with a flexoelectric nematic liquid crystal (NLC) subjected to an…
We exploit the long-ranged elastic fields inherent to confined nematic liquid crystals to assemble colloidal particles trapped at the liquid crystal interface into reconfigurable structures with complex symmetries and packings. Spherical…
Soft colloids are increasingly used as model systems to address fundamental issues such as crystallisation and the glass and jamming transitions. Among the available classes of soft colloids, microgels are emerging as the gold standard.…
In this work we consider bubbles that can form spontaneously when a two-dimensional (2D) crystal is transferred to a substrate with gases or liquids trapped at the crystal-substrate interface. The underlying mechanics may be described by a…
Computer simulations of bi-continuous two-phase fluids with intersparsed dumbbells show that, unlike rigid colloids, soft dumbbells do not lead to arrested coarsening. However, they significantly alter the curvature dynamics of the…
Deterministic control of the layering configuration of two-dimensional quantum materials plays a central role in studying their emergent electronic properties. Here we demonstrate in-situ control over competing stacking configurations in…
Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) have a characteristic length scale given by the pitch of the twisted stacking of their constituent rod-like molecules. Under homeotropic anchoring conditions where the molecules prefer to orient…
Monte Carlo simulation, experiment and continuum theory are used to examine the anchoring exhibited by a nematic liquid crystal at a patterned substrate comprising a periodic array of rectangles that, respectively, promote vertical and…
Hypothesis: A broad range of phenomena, such as emulsification and emulsion stability, foam formation or liquid evaporation, are closely related to the dynamics of adsorbing colloidal particles. Elucidation of the mechanisms implied is key…
Understanding the drift motion and dynamical locking of crystalline clusters on patterned substrates is important for the diffusion and manipulation of nano- and micro-scale objects on surfaces. In a previous work, we studied the…
Liquid crystals alignment on 2D materials is known due to their intrinsic van der Waals interaction. Here, we demonstrate that direction of electric field can tune the alignment of liquid crystal adsorbed on 2D surface. Due to degeneracy of…
Nematic liquid crystal (LC) molecules adsorbed on two dimensional materials are aligned along the crystal directions of the hexagonal lattice. It was demonstrated that short electric pulses can reorient the aligned LC molecules in the…
We study the dipole layer formed at metal-organic interfaces by means of first-principles calculations. Interface dipoles are monitored by calculating the work function change of Au, Ag, Al, Mg and Ca surfaces upon adsorption of a monolayer…
Thin molecular films under model conditions are often exploited as benchmarks and case studies to investigate the electronic and structural changes occurring on the surface of metallic electrodes. Here we show that the modification of a…
Ion hydration and interfacial water play crucial roles in numerous phenomena ranging from biological to industrial systems. Although biologically relevant (and mostly smaller) ions have been studied extensively in this context, very little…
Soft particles such as microgels and core-shell particles can undergo significant and anisotropic deformations when adsorbed to a liquid interface. This, in turn, leads to a complex phase behavior upon compression. Here we develop a…
Nanoscale molecular transport plays a crucial role in regulating mass diffusion and responsiveness in condensed matter systems. In soft porous crystals, in particular, adsorption of guest molecules induces host framework deformation and…