Related papers: Electrically Tunable Heliconical Smectic Superstru…
We investigate the phase behaviour of a two-dimensional colloidal model system of ultra-soft particles on a substrate which varies periodically along one spatial direction. Our calculations are based on mean-field density functional theory…
Not every particle that forms a nematic liquid crystal makes a smectic. The particle tip is critical for this behaviour. Ellipsoids do not make a smectic, but sphero-cylinders do. Similarly, only those N-CB alkylcyanobiphenyls with…
We explore the possibility that the large electroclinic effect observed in ferroelectric liquid crystals arises from the presence of an ordered array of disclination lines and walls. If the spacing of these defects is in the subvisible…
A liquid crystal optical device made of an optically anisotropic heterostructure is considered. The device consists of a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) layer sandwiched by two phase-shifting anisotropic layers of a nematic liquid crystal…
Organic electro-optic materials have demonstrated promising performance in developing electro-optic phase shifters. Their integration with other silicon photonic processes, nanofabrication complexities, and durability remains to be…
Polar metals, materials in which electric polarisation and metallicity coexist, are exceptionally rare because itinerant electrons screen long-range dipoles and favour centrosymmetric structures. Engineering polar textures in a conducting…
Half metallic ferromagnetic compounds (HMF) are intensively explored for their potential in spintronics application. According to theoretical studies, HMF are those materials where the conduction mechanism is due to one type of spin state,…
$^3$He is an example of the system with non-trivial Cooper paring. A few different superfluid phases are known in this system. Recently the new one, the polar phase, have been observed in $^3$He confined in nematically ordered aerogel. A…
Recent experimental realization of ferroelectric nematic liquid crystalline phases stimulated material development and numerous experimental studies of these new phases, guided by their fundamental and applicative interest. In this…
Ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals represent not only interesting fundamental science, but they also hold promise for storage capacitors with high power density or new information display technology having sub-millisecond switching. In…
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…
Many bent-core nematic liquid crystals exhibit unusual physical properties due to the presence of smectic clusters, known as "cybotactic" clusters in the nematic phase. Effect of these clusters on complex shear modulus ($G^*(\omega)$) of…
After decades of searching for robust nanoscale ferroelectricity that could enable integration into the next generation memory and logic devices, hafnia-based thin films have appeared as the ultimate candidate because their ferroelectric…
In search for novel nematic materials, a laterally linked H-shaped liquid crystal dimer have been synthesized and characterized. The distinct feature of the material is a very broad temperature range (about 50 oC) of the nematic phase,…
Various possibilities of polar self-organisation in low molar mass nematic, smectic and columnar liquid crystals are discussed with particular focus on the underlying molecular symmetries and interactions. Distinction is made between vector…
Due to the intertwining between electronic nematic and elastic degrees of freedom, lattice defects and structural inhomogeneities commonly found in crystals can have a significant impact on the electronic properties of nematic materials.…
Surface interactions are responsible for many properties of condensed matter, ranging from crystal faceting to the kinetics of phase transitions. Usually, these interactions are polar along the normal to the interface and apolar within the…
The recent discovery of nematic liquid crystals with polar order (ferroelectric nematic) has created immense interest. Despite intensive research, several physical properties of this liquid crystal are yet to be investigated and understood.…
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…
The surface phase behavior of binary mixtures of colloidal hard rods in contact with a solid substrate (hard wall) is studied, with special emphasis on the region of the phase diagram that includes the smectic A phase. The colloidal rods…