Related papers: Microrheology to Probe Smectic Clusters in Bent-co…
The phase behavior of the system of parallel rigid triblock copolymers is examined using the second-virial density functional theory. The triblock particle consists of two identical infinitely thin hard rods of finite lengths on the…
In this review, we report recent developments on the shear-induced transitions and instabilities found in surfactant wormlike micelles. The survey focuses on the non-linear shear rheology and covers a broad range of surfactant…
We show that the relative stability of the nematic tetratic phase with respect to the usual uniaxial nematic phase can be greatly enhanced by clustering effects. Two--dimensional rectangles of aspect ratio $\kappa$ interacting via hard…
We develop a theory of point defects in cholesterics and textures in spherical droplets with normal anchoring. The local structure of chiral defects is described by singularity theory and a smectic-like gradient field establishing a nexus…
Recent experiments indicate that doping low concentrations of bent-core molecules into calamitic smectic solvents can induce anticlinic and biaxial smectic phases. We have carried out Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of mixtures of rodlike…
We present an experimental study of the surface effects (interactions with the container walls) during the nucleation and growth of smectic B crystals from the nematic in free growth and directional solidification of a mesogenic molecule…
We test the performance of a recently proposed fundamental measure density functional of aligned hard cylinders by calculating the phase diagram of a monodisperse fluid of these particles. We consider all possible liquid crystalline…
Investigations of the phase diagram of biaxial liquid crystal systems through analyses of general Hamiltonian models within the simplifications of mean-field theory (MFT), as well as by computer simulations based on microscopic models, are…
Chiral twisting of the molecular orientation within the layer of a smectic-A liquid crystal has been investigated using circular dichroism spectroscopy. The results indicate that a rotation of the layers away from the alignment direction is…
We report a dynamic light scattering study of the fluctuation modes in a thermotropic liquid crystalline mixture of monomer and dimer compounds that exhibits the twist-bend nematic ($\mathrm{N_{TB}}$) phase. The results reveal a spectrum of…
The effect on the nematic to smectic-A transition in octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB) due to dispersions of hydrogen-bonded silica (aerosil) particles is characterized with high-resolution x-ray scattering. The particles form weak gels in 8CB…
Using computer simulations we investigate the microscopic structure of the singular director field within a nematic droplet. As a theoretical model for nematic liquid crystals we take hard spherocylinders. To induce an overall topological…
There is a recent interest in studying odd elasticity in soft solids. Current focus has been on simple solids. However, many soft solids are structured and can exhibit nematic elasticity or viscoelasticity. Here we generalize the concept of…
We study the phase ordering colloids suspended in a thermotropic nematic liquid crystal below the clearing point Tni and the resulting aggregated structure. Small (150nm) PMMA particles are dispersed in a classical liquid crystal matrix,…
Wormlike micellar solutions formed by long-chained zwitterionic surfactants show gel-like rheology at room temperature and have recently been found to exhibit other complex and interesting rheological features. We study the dynamics of…
Under appropriate conditions, mixtures of cationic and neutral lipids and DNA in water condense into complexes in which DNA strands form local 2D smectic lattices intercalated between lipid bilayer membranes in a lamellar stack. These…
Microorganisms often encounter anisotropy, for example in mucus and biofilms. We study how anisotropy and elasticity of the ambient fluid affects the speed of a swimming microorganism with a prescribed stroke. Motivated by recent…
Recently we have formulated theory of bi-layer-dimerized chiral liquid antiferroelectric crystals. The spontaneous polarization has been increased owing to the strong interaction of the aromatic cores of the rod like liquid crystal…
We study phases and phase transitions that can take place in the newly discovered banana (bow-shaped or bent-core) liquid crystal molecules. We show that to completely characterize phases exhibited by such bent-core molecules a third-rank…
We formulate a simple Landau type model describing macroscopic behaviour recently discovered new smectic phases composed of achiral bent-shaped molecules. Films of such smectics exhibit three types of ordering related to dipole…