Related papers: Ferroelectric nematic -- isotropic critical end po…
Within the framework of Landau-de Gennes theory for nematic liquid crystals, we study the temperature-induced isotropic-nematic phase transition on a spherical shell. Below a critical temperature, a thin layer of nematic coating a…
We discuss thermotropic nematic liquid crystals in the mean-field regime. In the first part of this article, we rigorously carry out the mean-field limit of a system of $N$ rod-like particles as $N\to\infty$, which yields an effective…
Using determinantal quantum Monte Carlo, we compute the properties of a lattice model with spin $\frac 1 2$ itinerant electrons tuned through a quantum phase transition to an Ising nematic phase. The nematic fluctuations induce…
Field theories predict that phase transitions sequentially breaking continuous and discrete symmetries can generate hybrid topological structures in which defects of different dimensionalities merge. We report experimental and numerical…
Nematic liquid crystals exhibit nanosecond electro-optic response to an applied electric field which modifies the degree of orientational order without realigning the molecular orientation. However, this nanosecond electrically-modified…
Electronic nematicity, proposed to exist in a number of transition metal materials, can have different microscopic origins. In particular, the anisotropic resistivity and meta-magnetic jumps observed in Sr3Ru2O7 are consistent with an…
The study of abrupt increases in magnetization with magnetic field known as metamagnetic transitions has opened a rich vein of new physics in itinerant electron systems, including the discovery of quantum critical end points with a marked…
In this work, we study the nematic-isotropic phase transition based on the dynamics of the Landau--De Gennes theory of liquid crystals. At the critical temperature, the Landau--De Gennes bulk potential favors the isotropic phase and nematic…
Influence of an external magnetic field on the nematic-isotropic ($N-I$) phase transition in a dispersion model of nematic liquid crystals, where the molecules are either perfectly uniaxial or biaxial (board-like), has been studied by Monte…
We report a transition from the ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal ($N_F$) phase to a lower-temperature, antiferroelectric fluid phase having reentrant isotropic symmetry ($I_A$), in the liquid crystal compound RM734 doped with small…
We have carried out a spectroscopic study on a prototype ferroelectric nematic material (RM7343) doped with a non-polar chiral compound. The mixture presents two chiral nematic phases, one conventional (N*) and the other polar (NF*), whose…
The Ising nematic quantum critical point (QCP) associated with the zero temperature transition from a symmetric to a nematic {\it metal} is an exemplar of metallic quantum criticality. We have carried out a minus sign-free quantum Monte…
The dipole flexoelectric (FE) polarization in liquid crystals is derived in the thermodynamic limit at small distortions and small density. General microscopic expressions for the FE coefficients are obtained in the case of the uniaxial and…
We construct and discuss the field theory for tensorial nematic order parameter coupled to gapless four-component fermions at the quadratic band touching point in three (spatial) dimensions. Within a properly formulated epsilon-expansion…
The recent discovery of ferroelectric nematic liquid crystalline phases marks a major breakthrough in soft matter research. An intermediate phase, often observed between the nonpolar and the ferroelectric nematic phase, shows a distinct…
Ferroelectric nematic fluids are promising materials for tunable nonlinear photonics, with applications ranging from second harmonic generation to sources of entangled photons. However, the few reported values of second-order…
Sessile droplets of a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystalline material were exposed to surface electric fields produced by pyroelectric and photogalvanic (photovoltaic) effects in X-cut iron-doped lithium niobate crystals. The resulting…
Liquid crystal droplets are of great interest from physics and applications. Rigorous mathematical analysis is challenging as the problem involves harmonic maps (and in general the Oseen-Frank model), free interfaces and topological defects…
The electroviscous effect deals with the change in the viscosity of fluids due to an external electric field. Here, we report experimental studies on the electroviscous effects in a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal. It was synthesised…
We have determined the nematic-isotropic transition temperature as a function of applied magnetic field in three different thermotropic liquid crystalline dimers. These molecules are comprised of two rigid calamitic moieties joined end to…