Related papers: Polar Smectic Films
We use a two-dimensional (2D) elastic free energy to calculate the effective interaction between two circular disks immersed in smectic-$C$ films. For strong homeotropic anchoring, the distortion of the director field caused by the disks…
The hydrodynamic stresses created by active particles can destabilise orientational order present in the system. This is manifested, for example, by the appearance of a bend instability in active nematics or in quasi-2-dimensional living…
Soft modulated phases have been shown to undergo complex morphological transitions, in which layer remodeling induced by mean and Gaussian curvatures plays a major role. This is the case in smectic films under thermal treatment, where focal…
We have studied the breakup and subsequent fluid flow in very thin films of partially wetting liquid on solid substrates, using molecular dynamics simulations. The liquid is made of short chain molecules interacting with Lennard-Jones…
A spacetime crystal is a phase of matter that spontaneously develops periodic order in both space and time. Spacetime crystals have been experimentally observed in microscopic quantum many-body systems and, very recently, in a mesoscopic…
Motivated by recent realizations of Dy$_{2}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$ and Ho$_{2}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$ spin ice thin films, and more generally by the physics of confined gauge fields, we study a model of spin ice thin film with surfaces perpendicular to…
Bow shocks and related density enhancements produced by the winds of massive stars moving through the interstellar medium provide important information regarding the motions of the stars, the properties of their stellar winds, and the…
A dynamic light scattering study of director-layer fluctuations in the antiferroelectric smectic-ZA phase of the ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal DIO is reported. The dynamics are consistent with the distinctive feature of the ZA phase…
The shape of liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) with spatial variation in the director orientation can be transformed by exposure to a stimulus. Here, informed by previously reported analytical treatments, we prepare complex spiral…
The results of studies of melting and crystallization processes in Bi-Ge layered film system are presented. These systems were prepared by subsequent condensation of components in vacuum. It has been shown that the melting temperature in…
Smart surfaces that reversibly change the interfacial friction coefficients in response to external stimuli enable a wide range of applications, such as grips, seals, brake pads, packaging films, and fabrics. Here a new concept of such a…
The surface of a polar liquid presents a special environment for the solvation and organization of charged solutes, which differ from bulk behaviors in important ways. These differences have motivated many attempts to understand…
We study the temperature dependence of static and dynamic responses of Coulomb interacting particles in two-dimensional traps across the thermal crossover from an amorphous solid- to liquid-like behaviors. While static correlations, that…
A nematic membrane is a sheet with embedded orientational order, which can occur in biological cells, liquid crystal films, manufactured materials, and other soft matter systems. By formulating the free energy of nematic films using tensor…
Surface interactions can cause freely suspended thin liquid crystalline films to form phases different from the bulk material, but it is not known what happens at the surface of thick films. Edge dislocations can be used as a marker for the…
We present the first microscopic images of the prewetting transition of a liquid film on a solid surface. Pictures of the local coverage map of a helium film on a cesium metal surface are taken while the temperature is raised through the…
We describe the extension of a "viscous froth" model to the dynamics of a wet foam in a Hele-Shaw cell. The two-dimensional model includes the friction experienced by the soap films as they are dragged along the cell walls, while retaining…
We develop a lattice model for the splay flexoelectric effect in nematic liquid crystals. In this model, each lattice site has a spin representing the local molecular orientation, and the interaction between neighboring spins represents…
We study the interaction of a nearly resonant linearly polarized laser beam with a cloud of cold cesium atoms in a high finesse optical cavity. We show theoretically and experimentally that the cross-Kerr effect due to the saturation of the…
An elastomer swelling actuator deforms by absorbing a fluid, thus generating mechanical movement. We show that depositing small droplets of low molecular weight liquid crystal on liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) films leads to shape changes…