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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),…
We study the effect of fluctuations in opening angle of bent-core molecules on stability of the nematic phases. The molecules are built out of two Gay-Berne centers of $\kappa = 4$, $\kappa ' = 5$, $\mu = 1$ and $\nu = 2$, each…
Using x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy, we studied the dynamics in the nematic phase of a nanorodsuspension. The collective diffusion coefficient in the plane perpendicular to the director varies sharply with the wave vector. Combining…
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…
Successful realization of ferromagnetic nematic liquid crystals has opened up the possibility to experimentally study a completely new set of fundamental physical phenomena. In this contribution we present a detailed investigation of some…
Liquid crystal elastomers realize a fascinating new form of soft matter that is a composite of a conventional crosslinked polymer gel (rubber) and a liquid crystal. These {\em solid} liquid crystal amalgams, quite similarly to their…
Density functional theory is used to study colloidal hard-rod fluids near an individual right-angled wedge or edge as well as near a hard wall which is periodically patterned with rectangular barriers. The Zwanzig model, in which the…
We use molecular dynamics simulations to study the behavior of a compressible Lennard-Jones fluid in simple shear flow in a two-dimensional nanochannel. The system is equilibrated in the fluid phase close to the triple point at which gas,…
We couple a free solute diffusion model to a model of crystal surface growth represented by, but not limited to, a (2 + 1)-dimensional solid-on-solid (SOS) model confined by a flat surface. We use kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) with dissolution…
Surface tension-driven flow techniques have recently emerged as an efficient means of shedding light into the rheology of thin polymer films. Motivated by experimental and theoretical approaches in films bearing a varying surface…
A simple Lennard-Jones fluid confined in a slit nanopore with hard walls is studied on the basis of a multilayer structured model. Each layer is homogeneous and parallel to the walls of the pore. The Helmholtz energy of this system is…
Nematic solids respond strongly to changes in ambient heat or light, significantly differently parallel and perpendicular to the director. This phenomenon is well characterized for uniform director fields, but not for defect textures. We…
Using particle-resolved molecular-dynamics simulations, we compute the phase diagram for soft repulsive spherocylinders confined on the surface of a sphere. While crystal (K), smectic (Sm), and isotropic (I) phases exhibit a stability…
The McMillan liquid crystalline models under the influence of homeotropic anchoring walls and of external fields are investigated. For thin systems, the existence of the critical thickness, below which the system does not undergo a discrete…
A micrometer-scale elastic shell immersed in a nematic liquid crystal may be deformed by the host if the cost of deformation is comparable to the cost of elastic deformation of the nematic. Moreover, such inclusions interact and form chains…
We show by means of continuum theory and simulations that geometric percolation in uniaxial nematics of hard slender particles is fundamentally different from that in isotropic dispersions. In the nematic, percolation depends only very…
Within the macroscopic Landau-de Gennes approach, we examine the Gaussian normal mode fluctuations of semi-infinite nematic liquid crystals in a regime of critical wetting. It is argued that surface free-energy potentials that strongly…
Using density-functional theory in the restricted-orientation approximation, we analyse the liquid-crystal patterns and phase behaviour of a fluid of hard rectangular particles confined in a two-dimensional square nanocavity of side length…
The properties of nanoconfined fluids can be strikingly different from those of bulk liquids. A basic unanswered question is whether the equilibrium and dynamic consequences of confinement are related to each other in a simple way. We study…
We simulate the sintering of particle aggregates due to surface diffusion. As a method we use Kinetic Monte-Carlo simulations in which elasticity can explicitly be taken into account. Therefore it is possible to investigate the shape…