Sharif Digital Repository

We present an exact treatment of the pairwise surface interactions of biaxial ellipsoidal bodies and derive the exact explicit expressions for the attractive-repulsive Lennard-Jones(6-12) ellipsoid-substrate interactions. The applicability of the results at nanoscale as a coarse-grained description of molecule-substrate interactions has been studied through presenting parameterizations for a number of small biaxial molecules. The study concludes that the anisotropic coarse-grained potential reproduces the atomistic interactions of ellipsoid-like rigid molecules perfectly, with a negligible error of less than 3%. Copyright © EPLA, 2007  

The electrohydrodynamic (EHD) vortices produced by an electric current in freely suspended liquid crystal (LC) films of N-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-4- butylaniline (MBBA), convert to a pure rotation in the presence of external electric field (E ext) perpendicular to the current direction. Here, the direction and strength of the rotation are precisely under control by our self-made device called "liquid-film motor". In this paper, we present experimental observations of the EHD fluid flow when external electric field varies from zero to a value in which pure rotation on the liquid crystal (LC) film is observed. We also show experimentally that the presence of external electric field causes a... 

Liquid crystal colloids have been proposed as suitable candidates for responsive photonic crystals. Large scale growth of such colloidal systems is, however, a challenge and recently template-assisted assembly has been proposed to guide the growth of colloidal crystals, with controlled symmetries, in nematic liquid crystals. Known for their long-range anisotropic interactions, these colloidal systems are stabilized typically at the center of the cells due to strong particle-wall repulsion from the confining substrates. This behaviour is dramatically changed in the presence of topographic patterning. Here we propose the use of topographic modulation of surfaces to select and localize... 

We investigate bonded boojum-colloids in nematic liquid crystals, configurations where two colloids with planar degenerate anchoring are double-bonded through line defects connecting their surfaces. This bonded structure promotes the formation of linear chains aligned with the nematic director. We show that the bonded configuration is the global minimum in systems that favor twist deformations. In addition, we investigate the influence of confinement on the stability of bonded boojum-colloids. Although the unbonded colloid configuration, where the colloids bundle at oblique angles, is favored by confinement, the bonded configuration is again the global minimum for liquid crystals with... 

The effective interaction between spherical colloids in nematic liquid crystals is investigated in the framework of the Landau-de Gennes theory. The colloids differ in their surface interaction with the nematic liquid crystal. The particles induce quadrupolar far-field distortions in the nematic matrix, favouring homeotropic and the other degenerate planar anchoring of the nematic director. In the strong anchoring regime the colloids with homeotropic anchoring are accompanied by an equatorial disclination line defect, known as "Saturn-ring", while the colloids with degenerate planar anchoring nucleate a pair of antipodal surface defects, called "boojums". In the linear (large-distance)... 

Topological defects are interesting phenomena which can be observed in ordered phases such as oriented active fluids or nematic liquid crystals. Topological defects are determined by the overall structure of the director field in an active fluid in nematic phase and by exerting force to the units of the active particles they can interact or cause motion in the environment. Studying them as particles with dynamical equations, instead of studying the director field of the nematic environment, would provide us the power to study the characteristics of their motion. The equations of motion for multi-defect systems have been previously studied and in this work we focus on the chaotic properties... 

The influence of Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) on dielectric properties of planar and homeotropic oriented nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) were studied during the temperature interval of 298–322 °K. It was found that the dielectric permittivity was considerably increased by adding NPs mass percentages. The structural characterization of the synthesized NPs with the scale 14–18 nm has been analyzed by the X-ray diffraction and field-emission scanning electron microscopy results. The obtained dielectric anisotropy ((Formula presented.)) and mean dielectric ((Formula presented.)) have shown an immense increment in the value of 1% and 10% wt. NPs doped NLCs, respectively. These results were assigned... 

The elastic behaviors of a two-axes dipole of wedge disclinations and an individual wedge disclination located inside the shell of a free standing core-shell nanowire is studied within the surface/interface elasticity theory. The corresponding boundary value problem is solved using complex potential functions, defined through modeling the disclination dipole by two finite walls of infinitesimal edge dislocations. The stress field, disclination strain energies and image forces acting on the disclinations, are calculated and studied in detail. It is shown that the stresses are rather inhomogeneous across the nanowire cross section, change their signs and reach local maxima and minima far from... 

Nematic shells of liquid crystals have been provided in microscales. Defect structures in the shells are very essential in the electro-optical applications of such colloidal objects. We have numerically minimized the free energy of symmetric and asymmetric spherical shells of the nematic liquid crystal. Considering degenerate planar anchoring on the surfaces and isotropic nematic elasticity, a variety of defect structures are observed by controlling or varying the thicknesses of the shell and its degree of asymmetry. In symmetric shells, our calculations show that boojums (bipolar) defects appear in thick shells and tetrahedral (baseball) defects in thin shells. In asymmetric shells, while... 

A continuum theory is employed to numerically study the equilibrium orientation and defect structures of a circular cylindrical particle with flat ends under a homeotropic anchoring condition in a uniform nematic medium. Different aspect ratios of this colloidal geometry from thin discotic to long rodlike shapes and several colloidal length scales ranging from mesoscale to nanoscale are investigated. We show that the equilibrium state of this colloidal geometry is sensitive to the two geometrical parameters: aspect ratio and length scale of the particle. For a large enough mesoscopic particle, there is a specific asymptotic equilibrium angle associated to each aspect ratio. Upon reducing the... 

The influence of Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) on dielectric properties of planar and homeotropic oriented nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) were studied during the temperature interval of 298–322 °K. It was found that the dielectric permittivity was considerably increased by adding NPs mass percentages. The structural characterization of the synthesized NPs with the scale 14–18 nm has been analyzed by the X-ray diffraction and field-emission scanning electron microscopy results. The obtained dielectric anisotropy (Δε) and mean dielectric (Formula presented.) have shown an immense increment in the value of 1% and 10% wt. NPs doped NLCs, respectively. These results were assigned to the strong...