相关论文: Ionically charged topological defects in nematic f…

Grain boundaries in extremely confined colloidal smectics possess a topological fine structure with coexisting nematic and tetratic symmetry of the director field. An alternative way to approach the problem of smectic topology is via the…

Nontrivial shape of colloidal particles create complex elastic distortions and topological defects in liquid crystals and play a key role in governing their electrophoretic propulsion through the medium. Here, we report experimental results…

Topological defects play a prominent role in the physics of two-dimensional materials. When driven out of equilibrium in active nematics, disclinations can acquire spontaneous self-propulsion and drive self-sustained flows upon…

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…

Metal nanoparticles are receiving increased scientific attention owing to their unique physical and chemical properties that make them suitable for a wide range of applications in diverse fields, such as electrochemistry, biochemistry, and…

We investigate experimentally and numerically the defect configurations emerging when a cholesteric liquid crystal is confined to a spherical shell. We uncover a rich scenario of defect configurations, some of them non-existent in nematic…

The homotopy theory of topological defects is a powerful tool for organizing and unifying many ideas across a broad range of physical systems. Recently, experimental progress has been made in controlling and measuring colloidal inclusions…

Nanoscopic heterogeneities in composition and structure are quintessential for the properties of electrocatalyst materials. Here, we present a semiclassical model to study the electrochemical properties of supported electrocatalyst…

When an ionic liquid adsorbs onto a porous electrode, its ionic arrangement is deeply modified due to a screening of the Coulombic interactions by the metallic surface and by the confinement imposed upon it by the electrode's morphology. In…

Defects arise when nematic liquid crystals are under topological constraints at the boundary. Recently the study of defects has drawn a lot of attention. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between two-dimensional defects and…

A nematic liquid crystal confined to the surface of a sphere exhibits topological defects of total charge $+2$ due to the topological constraint. In equilibrium, the nematic field forms four $+1/2$ defects, located at the corners of a…

The ion distribution of electrolytes near interfaces with dielectric contrast has important consequences for electrochemical processes and many other applications. To date, most studies of such systems have focused on geometrically simple…

The amorphous structure of nanoporous carbon electrodes in supercapacitors complicates the establishment of clear links between electrode geometry and capacitance. In this work, we examine how specific structural features govern charge…

Endowed with a multitude of exquisite properties such as rich electrochemistry, superb topology and eccentric electromagnetic phenomena, honeycomb layered oxides have risen to the top echelons of science with applications in diverse fields…

We calculate the interaction between two spherical colloidal particles embedded in the isotropic phase of a nematogenic liquid. The surface of the particles induces wetting nematic coronas that mediate an elastic interaction. In the weak…

We construct a phenomenological Landau-de Gennes theory for hard colloidal rods by performing an order parameter expansion of the chemical-potential dependent grand potential. By fitting the coefficients to known results of Onsager theory,…

Collectively moving cellular systems often contain a proportion of dead cells or non-motile genotypes. When mixed, nematically aligning motile and non-motile agents are known to segregate spontaneously. However, the role that topological…

There have been several proposals for platforms sustaining topological superconductivity in high temperature superconductors, in order to make use of the larger superconducting gap and the expected robustness of Majorana zero modes towards…

Recent discoveries of topological phases realized in electronic states in solids have revealed an important role of topology, which ubiquitously appears in various materials in nature. Many well-known materials have turned out to be…

Disclination configurations of a nematic liquid crystal are studied within a self-consistent molecular field theory. The theory is based on a tensor order parameter, and can accommodate anisotropic elastic energies without the known…