Elastocapillary driven assembly of particles at free-standing smectic-A films
arXiv:1709.08253 · doi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b03351
Abstract
Colloidal particles at complex fluid interfaces and within films assemble to form ordered structures with high degrees of symmetry via interactions that include capillarity, elasticity, and other fields like electrostatic charge. Here we study microparticle interactions within free-standing smectic-A films, in which the elasticity arising from the director field distortion and capillary interactions arising from interface deformation compete to direct the assembly of motile particles. New colloidal assemblies and patterns, ranging from 1D chains to 2D aggregates, sensitive to the initial wetting conditions of particles at the smectic film, are reported. This work paves the way to exploiting LC interfaces as a means to direct spontaneously formed, reconfigurable, and optically active materials.
arXiv comment8 pages, 6 figures. Supplementary Materials: 3 pages, 3 figures
References in corpus (9)
- Ordered droplet structures at the liquid crystal surface and elastic-capillary colloidal interactions
- Critical Casimir forces in colloidal suspensions on chemically patterned surfaces
- Curvature-driven, One-step Assembly of Reconfigurable Smectic Liquid Crystal "Compound Eye" Lenses
- Assembling Ellipsoidal Particles at Fluid Interfaces using Switchable Dipolar Capillary Interactions
- Exploiting imperfections: Directed assembly of surface colloids via bulk topological defects
- Contact-line pinning controls how quickly colloidal particles equilibrate with liquid interfaces
- Undulation instabilities in the meniscus of smectic membranes
- Micro-Bullet Assembly: Interactions of Oriented Dipoles in Confined Nematic Liquid Crystal
- Focal Conic Flower Textures at Curved Interfaces
Cited by in corpus (5)
- Structural Landscapes in Geometrically Frustrated Smectics
- Helfrich-Hurault elastic instabilities driven by geometrical frustration
- Complex-tensor theory of simple smectics
- Smectic Layering: Landau theory for a complex-tensor order parameter
- Colloidal smectics in button-like confinements: experiment and theory