Related papers: Topology and Bistability in liquid crystal devices
Topological surface states, a new kind of electronic state of matter, have recently been observed on the cleaved surfaces of crystals of a handful of small band gap semiconductors. The underlying chemical factors that enable these states…
Using first-principles density functional theory calculations, we investigate a family of stable two-dimensional crystals with chemical formula $A_2B_2$, where $A$ and $B$ belong to groups IV and V, respectively ($A$ = C, Si, Ge, Sn, Pb;…
Topological metals are special conducting materials with gapless band structures and nontrivial edge-localized resonances, whose discovery has proved elusive because the traditional topological classification methods do not apply in this…
We demonstrate a bistable optical trap by tightly focusing a vortex laser beam. The optical potential has the form of a Mexican hat with an additional minimum at the center. The bistable trapping corresponds to a non-equilibrium steady…
The classical theory of liquid crystal elasticity as formulated by Oseen and Frank describes the (orientable) optic axis of these soft materials by a director $\mathbf{n}$. The ground state is attained when $\mathbf{n}$ is uniform in space;…
Three-dimensional (3D) simulations of the structure of liquid crystal (LC) torons, topologically protected distortions of the LC director field, under material flows are rare but essential in microfluidic applications. Here, we show that…
Exploring various topological states (TS) and topological phase transitions (TPT) has attracted great attention in condensed matter physics. However, so far, there is rarely a typical material system that can be used as a platform to study…
In the current industry, the development of optimized mechanical components able to satisfy the customer requirements evolves quickly. Therefore, companies are asked for efficient solutions to improve their products in terms of stiffness…
Recent experimental observations have suggested that topological defects can facilitate the creation of sharp features in developing embryos. Whereas these observations echo established knowledge about the interplay between geometry and…
The control of light through all-optical means is a fundamental challenge in nanophotonics and a key effect in optical switching and logic. The optical bistability effect enables this control and can be observed in various planar photonic…
The recent research of topological photonics has not only proposed and realized novel topological phenomena such as one-way broadband propagation and robust transport of light, but also designed and fabricated photonic devices with…
The twist-bend nematic (Ntb) phase is a recent addition to the nematic (N) phases of liquid crystals (LCs). A net polar order in the Ntb phase under an external electric field was predicted in several recent theoretical studies but yet to…
Topological phononic crystals, alike their electronic counterparts, are characterized by a bulk-edge correspondence where the interior of a material dictates the existence of stable surface or boundary modes. In the mechanical setup, such…
We study droplets of chromonic liquid crystals squeezed between parallel plates inducing degenerate tangential anchoring on the nematic director. In the coexistence regime, where droplets in the nematic phase are at equilibrium with the…
We construct generalized Hofstadter models that possess "color-entangled" flat bands and study interacting many-body states in such bands. For a system with periodic boundary conditions and appropriate interactions, there exist gapped…
Liquid crystals are synthetic and biological viscoelastic anisotropic soft matter materials that combine liquid fluidity with crystal anisotropy and find use in optical devices, sensor/actuators, lubrication, super-fibers. Frequently…
Topological materials hosting kagome lattices have drawn considerable attention due to the interplay between topology, magnetism, and electronic correlations. The (Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)Sn system not only hosts a kagome lattice but has a tunable…
Solitons in liquid crystals are spatially localised stable configuration of the liquid crystal orientational order parameter that exhibit emergent particle-like properties such as mutual interaction, translational motion and reconfigurable…
In bubble-assisted Liquid HoleMultipliers(LHM), developed for noble-liquid radiation detectors, the stability of the bubble and the electro-mechanical properties of the liquid-to-gas interface play a dominant role in the detector…
Topological materials exhibit protected edge modes that have been proposed for applications in for example spintronics and quantum computation. While a number of such systems exist, it would be desirable to be able to test theoretical…