Related papers: Photoalignment at the nematic liquid crystal - pol…
In spite of the fact that there are different techniques in the creation of the high-quality liquid crystals (LCs) alignment by means of various surfaces, the azimuthal and polar anchoring energies as well as the pre-tilt angle are…
We demonstrate experimentally that the interactions between a pair of nonlocal spatial optical solitons in a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) can be controlled by the degree of nonlocality. For a given beam width, the degree of nonlocality can…
Fundamental understanding of macroscopic properties of polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) remains difficult due to the complex interplay of microscopic dynamics and structure, namely interfacial layer relaxations and three-dimensional…
Replicating the microstructure and near-unity excitation energy transfer efficiency in natural light-harvesting complexes (LHCs) remains a major challenge for synthetic energy-harvesting devices. Biological photosynthesis can spontaneously…
A liquid crystal optical device made of an optically anisotropic heterostructure is considered. The device consists of a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) layer sandwiched by two phase-shifting anisotropic layers of a nematic liquid crystal…
Enthalpic interactions at the interface between nanoparticles and matrix polymers is known to influence various properties of the resultant polymer nanocomposites (PNC). For athermal PNCs, consisting of grafted nanoparticles embedded in…
We study experimentally the propagation dynamics and interaction of a pair of mutually incoherent nematicons: spatial optical solitons in nematic liquid crystals. In contrast to earlier studies, we consider a bias-free liquid-crystal cell…
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…
Modulating liquid-to-solid transitions and the resulting crystalline structure for tailored properties is much desired. Colloidal systems are exemplary to this end, but the fundamental knowledge gaps in relating the influence of…
We derive a multiphysics model that accounts for network elasticity with spontaneous strains, swelling and nematic interactions in liquid crystal gels (LCGs). We discuss the coupling among the various physical mechanisms, with particular…
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…
Non-chiral liquid crystals (LCs) exhibiting ferroelectricity, distinguished by their dynamic responsiveness to external stimuli and high spontaneous polarization, provide renewed impetus for research into this area of soft matter and open…
The anchoring of nematic liquid crystals on surfaces with grafted liquid crystalline chain molecules is studied by computer simulations and within a mean field approach. The computer simulations show that a swollen layer of collectively…
This paper reviews the research work on the liquid crystalline (LC) polymer vesicles (polymersomes), where the thermotropic nematic and smectic phases are displayed in the lyotropic bilayer polymer membrane. LC polymersomes possess the…
This study explores the mechanisms behind the helical structures in cholesteric liquid crystalline (CLC) phases using molecular dynamics simulations. By adding chiral agents to the nematic liquid crystalline (NLC) compound, 5CB, the…
This paper explores different photo-bending shapes in polydomain nematic glass. The motivation is to explain the phenomenon in experiment [1] under polarized light in which a nematic film curls into an circular arc, like part of a…
Topological photonics harnesses the physics of topological insulators to control the behavior of light. Photonic modes robust against material imperfections are an example of such control. In this work, we propose a soft-matter platform…
Mono-layers of stearic and behenic acids deposited with the Langmuir-Blodgett technique, were used as aligning films in nematic liquid crystal cells. During the filling process the liquid crystal adopts a deformed quasi-planar alignment…
The possible symmetries of the biaxial nematic phase are examined against the implications of the presently available experimental results. Contrary to the widespread notion that biaxial nematics have orthorhombic symmetry, our study shows…
We study stability and distortions of liquid crystal nematic order in a cell with a random heterogeneous substrate. Modeling this system as a bulk xy model with quenched disorder confined to a surface, we find that nematic order is…