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Sorting and separation of microparticles is a challenging problem of interdisciplinary nature. Existing technologies can differentiate microparticles by their bulk properties, such as size, density, electric polarizability, etc. The next…
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…
Imaging techniques are essential tools for inquiring a number of properties from different materials. Liquid crystals are often investigated via optical and image processing methods. In spite of that, considerably less attention has been…
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,…
The problem of imaging materials with circular polarization properties is discussed within the framework of vectorial ptychography. We demonstrate, both theoretically and numerically, that using linear polarizations to investigate such…
Molecular Dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained bead-spring model of flexible macromolecules tethered with one end to the surface of a cylindrical pore are presented. Chain length $N$ and grafting density $\sigma$ are varied over a wide…
We demonstrate optical trapping and manipulation of defects and transparent microspheres in nematic liquid crystals (LCs). The three-dimensional director fields and positions of the particles are visualized using the Fluorescence Confocal…
When introducing a nanoparticle into an optical trap, its mass and shape are not immediately apparent. We combine a charge-based mass measurement with a shape determination method based on light scattering and an analysis of the damping…
Nematic liquid crystals confined to geometrically as well as chemically patterned substrate on one end and a flat substrate with strong anchoring on the other is studied using non-Boltzmann Monte Carlo methods. We observe significant…
Fast detection and characterization of single nanoparticles such as viruses, airborne aerosols and colloidal particles are considered to be particularly important for medical applications, material science and atmospheric physics. In…
Polarizing microscopy brought about many advancements in the science of liquid crystals and other soft materials, including those of biological origin. Recent developments in optics and computer-based analysis enabled a new generation of…
Polymeric particles are strong candidates for designing artificial materials capable of emulating the complex twisting-based functionality observed in biological systems. In this letter, we provide the first detailed investigation of the…
The ability to synthesize shape-controlled polymer particles will benefit a wide range of applications including targeted drug delivery and metamaterials with reconfigurable structures, but existing synthesis approaches are commonly…
A theoretical model of shape-anisometric particles embedded in a cubic lattice is formulated for binary mixtures combining rod-like, plate-like and spherical particles. The model aims at providing a tool for the prediction and…
We propose an enantioselective scheme to sort homogeneous chiral particles using optical tweezers. For a certain range of material parameters, we show that a highly focused circularly-polarized laser beam traps particles of a specific…
Novel liquid crystalline (LC) compositions are suggested and studied as elements of LC-nose. This allows for optical detection of several volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Ethanol, toluene, pyridine and acetic acid were detected by means…
The ability to manipulate polar entities with multiple external fields opens exciting possibilities for emerging functionalities and novel applications in spin systems, photonics, metamaterials, and soft matter. Liquid crystals (LCs),…
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are elongated nanoparticles derived from natural cellulose, with potential applications ranging from rheological modifiers and emulsion stabilizers to photonic pigments and sensors. For most applications,…
We examine nanoparticles (NPs) forming polyhedral sections of the ideal cubic lattice, simple (sc), body centered (bcc), and face centered (fcc) cubic, which are confined by facets characterized by densest and second densest {h k l}…
Emerging technologies based on liquid crystal (LC) materials increasingly leverage the presence of nanoscale defects, unlike the canonical application of LCs -- LC displays. The inherent nanoscale characteristics of LC defects present both…