Surface induced structures in nematic liquid crystal colloids
arXiv:1405.7878 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.90.020502
Abstract
We predict theoretically the existence of a class of colloidal structures in nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cells, which are induced by surface patterns on the plates of the cell (like cells with UV-irradiated polyimide surfaces using micron size masks). These bulk structures arise from non-zero boundary conditions for the director distortions at the confining surfaces. In particular, we demonstrate that quadrupole spherical particles (like spheres with boojums or Saturn-ring director configurations) form a square lattice inside a planar NLC cell, which has checkerboard patterns on both its plates.
References in corpus (6)
- Topological Defects and Interactions in Nematic Emulsions
- Elasticity-mediated self-organization and colloidal interactions of solid spheres with tangential anchoring in a nematic liquid crystal
- Ordered droplet structures at the liquid crystal surface and elastic-capillary colloidal interactions
- Theory of Elastic Interaction of the Colloidal Particles in the Nematic Liquid Crystal Near One Wall and in the Nematic Cell
- Elastic interaction between colloidal particles in confined nematic liquid crystals
- Elastic octopoles and colloidal structures in nematic liquid crystals