Related papers: Photoalignment at the nematic liquid crystal - pol…
Surface alignment of a recently discovered ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal (NF) is usually achieved by buffed polymer films, which produce a unidirectional polar alignment of the spontaneous electric polarization. We demonstrate that…
We probe the temperature dependence of friction at the interface between a glassy poly(methylmethacrylate) lens and a flat substrate coated with a methyl-terminated self-assembled monolayer. The monolayer exhibits density defects which act…
Numerous measurements of the dielectric constant $\epsilon$ of the recently discovered ferroelectric nematic ($N_F$) liquid crystal (LC) phase report extraordinarily large values of $\epsilon^\prime$ (up to ~30,000). We show that what is in…
Targeting specific technological applications requires the control of nanoparticle properties, especially the crystalline polymorph. Freezing a nanodroplet deposited on a solid substrate leads to the formation of crystalline structures. We…
Colloids self-assemble into various organized superstructures determined by particle interactions. There is a tremendous progress in both the scientific understanding and applications of self-assemblies of single-type identical particles.…
Specific features of the defect modes of cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) with an isotropic defect, as well as their photonic density of states, Q factor, and emission, have been investigated. The effect of the thicknesses of the defect…
During the last half-decade, a new class of ferroic-fluid, ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals (NFLCs), creates a noise owing to its exceptional properties such as a colossal polarization, high electro-optic activity plus high fluidity.…
Intense light propagating in a nonlinear medium can generate an ensemble of interacting filaments of light, or spatial solitons. Using nematic liquid crystals, we demonstrate that they undergo a collective behavior typical of complex…
We have studied the nucleation and the physical properties of a -1/2 wedge disclination line near the free surface of a confined nematic liquid crystal. The position of the disclination line has been related to the material parameters…
The confining effect of a spherical substrate inducing anchoring (normal to the surface) of rod-like liquid crystal molecules contained in a thin film spread over it has been investigated with regard to possible changes in the nature of the…
We carry out Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the effect of molecular shape on liquid-crystal order. In our approach, each model mesogen consists of several soft spheres bonded rigidly together. The arrangement of the spheres may be…
Non-linear photonic crystals can be used to provide phase-matching for frequency conversion in optically isotropic materials. The phase-matching mechanism proposed here is a combination of form birefringence and phase velocity dispersion in…
Spontaneous onset of a low temperature topologically ordered phase in a 2-dimensional (2D) lattice model of uniaxial liquid crystal (LC) was debated extensively pointing to a suspected underlying mechanism affecting the RG flow near the…
The interface chemistry of silicon nanocrystals (NCs) embedded in amorphous oxide matrix is studied through molecular dynamics simulations with the chemical environment described by the reactive force field model. Our results indicate that…
Thin liquid films on surfaces are part of our everyday life, they serve e.g. as coatings or lubricants. The stability of a thin layer is governed by interfacial forces, described by the effective interface potential, and has been subject of…
A scattering polarizer is created by subjecting a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) film to tensile strain. The optomechanical properties of the film are investigated by simultaneously measuring the stress-strain and polarization…
We address the interactions between optical solitons in the system with longitudinally varying nonlocality degree and nonlinearity strength. We consider a physical model describing light propagation in nematic liquid crystals featuring a…
The process of homogeneous crystal nucleation has been considered in a model liquid, where the interparticle interaction is described by a short-range spherical oscillatory potential. Mechanisms of initiating structural ordering in the…
Mono-layers of stearic and behenic acids and mixtures of them in different proportions, deposited with the Langmuir-Blodgett technique, were used to study the alignment and the alignment dynamics in nematic liquid crystal cells. A…
Electronic level alignment at the interface between an adsorbed molecular layer and a semiconducting substrate determines the activity and efficiency of many photocatalytic materials. We perform $G_0W_0$ calculations to determine the…