Related papers: Light-induced multistability and Freedericksz tran…
Using dynamic light scattering, we measure for the first time the temperature-dependent elastic moduli and associated orientational viscosity coefficients of the nematic phase in a self-assembled lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal. The bend…
The ideas of mathematical topology play an important role in many aspects of modern physics - from phase transitions to field theory to nonlinear dynamics (Nakahara M (2003) in Geometry, Topology and Physics, ed Brewer DF (IOP Publishing…
We use lattice Boltzmann simulations of the Beris--Edwards formulation of nematodynamics to probe the response of a nematic liquid crystal with conflicting anchoring at the boundaries under shear and Poiseuille flow. The geometry we focus…
A rigorous theory of liquid-crystal transitions is developed starting from the Liouville equation. The starting point is an all-atom description and a set of order parameter field variables that are shown to evolve slowly via Newton's…
We present a rigorous treatment of the diffusion approximation for multiple light scattering in anisotropic random media, and apply it to director fluctuations in a nematic liquid crystal. For a typical nematic material, 5CB, we give…
We report on a new class of electromagnetically-driven fluid interface instability. Using the optical radiation pressure of a cw laser to bend a very soft near-critical liquid-liquid interface, we show that it becomes unstable for…
Instabilities of fluid-fluid interfaces are ubiquitous in passive soft matter. Adding activity to the interface or either fluid can dramatically change the stability of the interface. Using experiment and theory, we investigate the…
We present a general theory of electric field effects in liquid crystals where the dielectric tensor depends on the orientation order. As applications, we examine (i) the director fluctuations in nematic states in electric field for…
Substrates which are chemically or topographically patterned induce a variety of liquid crystal textures. The response of the liquid crystal to competing surface orientations, typical of patterned substrates, is determined by the anisotropy…
Nanostructured ferroelectrics display exotic multidomain configurations resulting from the electrostatic and elastic boundary conditions they are subject to. While the ferroelectric domains appear frozen in experimental images, atomistic…
We demonstrate several examples of driving and steering of colloids when dispersed in nematic liquid crystals. The driving mechanism is based on the principle of nonlinear electrophoresis which is mediated by the asymmetry in the structure…
We study both theoretically and experimentally switching dynamics in surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal cells with asymmetric boundary conditions. In these cells the bounding surfaces are treated differently to produce…
We report a dynamic light scattering study of the fluctuation modes in a thermotropic liquid crystalline mixture of monomer and dimer compounds that exhibits the twist-bend nematic ($\mathrm{N_{TB}}$) phase. The results reveal a spectrum of…
We report a theoretical and experimental work on the nematicon in the planar cell containing the nematic liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy, aligned homeotropically in the presence of an externally applied voltage. The…
Light propagation through artificially patterned anisotropic materials, such as dielectric metasurfaces, enables precise control of the spatio-vectorial properties of optical fields using highly transparent, thin, and flat optical elements.…
Active fluids are intrinsically out-of-equilibrium systems due to the internal energy injection of the active constituents. We show here that a transition from a motion-less isotropic state towards a flowing polar one can be possibly driven…
We derive a mathematical model of a nematic electrolyte based on the Leslie-Ericksen theory of liquid crystal flow. Our goal is to investigate the nonlinear electrokinetic effects that occur because the nematic matrix is anisotropic, in…
We study the light transmission in two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides with embedded nonlinear defects. First, we derive the effective discrete equations with long-range interaction for describing the waveguide modes, and…
Studies of sessile droplets and fluid bridges of a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal in externally applied electric fields are presented. It is found that above a threshold, the interface of the fluid with air undergoes a fingering…
Nematic drops suspended in the isotropic phase of the same substance were subjected to alternating electrical fields of varying frequency. The system was carefully kept in the isotropic-nematic coexistance region, which was broadened due to…