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Bonded boojum-colloids in nematic liquid crystals

Eskandari, Z ; Sharif University of Technology | 2013

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1021/la4017195
  3. Publisher: 2013
  4. Abstract:
  5. 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 sufficiently small twist elastic constants
  6. Keywords:
  7. Bonded structure ; Global minima ; Line defects ; Linear chain ; Nematic director ; Oblique angles ; Twist deformations ; Twist elastic constant ; Nematic liquid crystals ; Colloids
  8. Source: Langmuir ; Volume 29, Issue 33 , 2013 , Pages 10360-10367 ; 07437463 (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/la4017195