Related papers: Columnar versus smectic order in systems of charge…
A spontaneous buckling transition in thin layers of monodomain nematic liquid crystalline gel was observed by polarized light microscopy. The coupling between the orientational ordering of liquid crystalline solvent and the translational…
We study the long-range order in two dimensions where an order parameter is advected by laminar flows such as rotational, shear, and elongational flows. Under these flows, we analyze an ordered state of the $O(N)$ scalar model in the…
Self-assembly of nanoparticles can enable composites with pre-designed properties but remains challenged by reproducing structural diversity of atomic and molecular crystals. We combine anisotropic elastic and weakly screened electrostatic…
We perform extensive Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the phase behaviour of colloidal suspensions of hard board-like particles (HBPs). While theories restricting particle orientation or ignoring higher ordered phases suggest the…
Optical birefringence measurements on a rod-like liquid crystal (8OCB), imbibed in silica channels (7 nm diameter), are presented and compared to the thermotropic bulk behavior. The orientational and positional order of the confined liquid…
A range of monodomain nematic liquid crystal elastomers containing differing proportions of photo-isomerisable mesogenic moieties, which turn from a rod-like to a kinked shape upon ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, was studied. Depending on the…
We show that the ground state of disordered rotor models with quadrupolar interactions can exhibit biaxial nematic ordering in the disorder-averaged sense. We present a mean-field analysis of the model and demonstrate that the biaxial phase…
We study a system of monodispersed hard rectangles of size $m \times d$, where $d\geq m$ on a two dimensional square lattice. For large enough aspect ratio, the system is known to undergo three entropy driven phase transitions with…
Rod-like objects at high packing fractions can form smectic phases, where the rods break rotational and translational symmetry by forming lamellae. Smectic defects thereby include both discontinuities in the rod orientational order…
Evidence of a special chiral nematic phase is provided using numerical simulation and Onsager theory for systems of hard helical particles. This phase appears at the high density end of the nematic phase, when helices are well aligned, and…
Using grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations, we investigate the isotropic-nematic phase transition for hard rods of size Lx1x1 on a 3D cubic lattice. We observe such a transition for L >= 6. For L = 6, the nematic state has a…
Using simulations we identify three dynamic regimes in supersaturated isotropic fluid states of short hard rods: (i) for moderate supersaturations we observe nucleation of multi-layered crystalline clusters; (ii) at higher supersaturation,…
A promising approach of designing mesostructured materials with novel physical behavior is to combine unique optical and electronic properties of solid nanoparticles with long-range ordering and facile response of soft matter to weak…
We numerically investigate two-dimensional systems of hard rectangles at constant pressure through extensive hard-particle Monte Carlo simulations. We determine the complete phase diagram as a function of packing fraction and aspect ratio,…
The isotropic-nematic phase behavior of length polydisperse hard rods with arbitrary length distributions is calculated. Within a numerical treatment of the polydisperse Onsager model using the Gaussian trial function Ansatz we determine…
We investigate the Zeeman-field-driven quantum phase transitions between singlet spin liquids and algebraically ordered O(2) nematic spin liquids of spin-one bosons in one-dimensional optical lattices. We find that the critical behavior is…
A major challenge in the study of active systems is to harness their non-equilibrium dynamics into useful work. We address this by showing how to design colloids with controllable spontaneous propulsion or rotation when immersed in active…
The recent experimental discovery of ferroelectric and splay nematic phases has sparked interest in comprehending the crucial molecular features necessary to stabilize these innovative structures. This study advances the ongoing discourse…
Continuum models of active nematic gels have proved successful to describe a number of biological systems consisting of a population of rodlike motile subunits in a fluid environment. However, in order to get a thorough understanding of the…
We study the effect of flexibility and bend angle on systems of hard semiflexible boomerangs. These are modelled as two rodlike segments joined at one end with an angle that can fluctuate about a preferred angle. We use a second-virial…