Related papers: Nematic Tactoid Population
We numerically investigate the morphology and disclination line dynamics of active nematic droplets in three dimensions. Although our model only incorporates the simplest possible form of achiral active stress, active nematic droplets…
Rheotaxis is a well-known phenomenon among microbial organisms and artificial active colloids, wherein the swimmers respond to an imposed flow. We report the first experimental evidence of upstream rheotaxis by spherical active droplets. It…
Wettability is the affinity of a liquid for a solid surface. For energetic reasons, macroscopic drops of liquid are nearly spherical away from interfaces with solids, and any local deformations due to molecular-scale surface interactions…
A continuum theory is employed to numerically study the equilibrium orientation and defect structures of a circular cylindrical particle with flat ends under a homeotropic anchoring condition in a uniform nematic medium. Different aspect…
The common description of the electrical behavior of a nematic liquid crystal as an anisotropic dielectric medium with (weak) ohmic conductivity is extended to an electrodiffusion model with two active ionic species. Under appropriate, but…
The spreading of a cap-shaped spherical droplet of non-Newtonian power-law liquids on a flat and a spherical rough and textured substrate is theoretically studied in the capillary-controlled spreading regime. A droplet whose scale is much…
The properties of liquid crystals can be modelled using an order parameter which describes the variability of the local orientation of rod-like molecules. Defects in the director field can arise due to external factors such as applied…
The assembly of colloids in nematic liquid crystals via topological defects has been extensively studied for spherical particles, and investigations of other colloid shapes have revealed a wide array of new assembly behaviors. We show,…
We use linear stability analysis to show that an isotropic phase of elongated particles with dipolar flow fields can develop nematic order as a result of their activity. We argue that ordering is favoured if the particles are flow-aligning…
We have employed the Density Functional Theory formalism to investigate the nematic-isotropic capillary transitions of a nematogen confined by walls that favor antagonist orientations to the liquid crystal molecules (hybrid cell). We…
Controlling the shape and position of moving and pinned droplets on a solid surface is an important feature often found in microfluidic applications. In this work, we consider a well investigated phase field model including contact line…
Dispersions of rodlike colloidal particles exhibit a plethora of liquid crystalline states, including nematic, smectic A, smectic B, and columnar phases. This phase behavior can be explained by presuming the predominance of hard-core volume…
We study the influence of fluctuations in molecular shape on the stability of the biaxial nematic phase by generalizing the mean field model of Mulder and Ruijgrok [Physica A {\bf 113}, 145 (1982)]. We limit ourselves to the case when the…
We construct the equations of motion for the coupled dynamics of order parameter and concentration for the nematic phase of driven particles on a solid surface, and show that they imply (i) giant number fluctuations, with a standard…
Using dynamic light scattering, we measure for the first time the temperature-dependent elastic moduli and associated orientational viscosity coefficients of the nematic phase in a self-assembled lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal. The bend…
We examine the shape of droplets atop deformable thin elastomeric films prepared with an anisotropic tension. As the droplets generate a deformation in the taut film through capillary forces, they assume a shape that is elongated along the…
Active forces occurring within cells can drive crucial biological processes that involve spontaneous organization and shape change, such as cell division. Motivated by recent in vitro experiments of nematic droplets of cytoskeletal…
The isotropic to ferroelectric nematic liquid transition had been theoretically studied over one hundred years ago, but its experimental studies are rare. Here we present polarizing optical microscopy studies and theoretical considerations…
Liquid crystals are synthetic and biological viscoelastic anisotropic soft matter materials that combine liquid fluidity with crystal anisotropy and find use in optical devices, sensor/actuators, lubrication, super-fibers. Frequently…
We analyse the influence of a surface viscosity on the orientational dynamics of a nematic liquid crystal subjected to an oscillatory Couette flow. Approximate analytical solutions of nematohydrodynamic equations for small flow amplitudes…