Breaking the degeneracy of nematic liquid crystals by means of actuated anisometric paramagnetic colloids

We demonstrate experimentally that the director of a planar nematic liquid crystal cell with degenerated azimuth can be resolved by means of sparse paramagnetic inclusions actuated upon by weak magnetic fields. The use of ellipsoidal particles enables the characterization of the reorientation of the...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Hernández Navarro, Sergi, Tierno, Pietro, Ignés i Mullol, Jordi, Sagués i Mestre, Francesc
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/127792
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/127792
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Col·loides
Cristalls líquids
Microfluídica
Colloids
Liquid crystals
Microfluidics
Descripción
Sumario:We demonstrate experimentally that the director of a planar nematic liquid crystal cell with degenerated azimuth can be resolved by means of sparse paramagnetic inclusions actuated upon by weak magnetic fields. The use of ellipsoidal particles enables the characterization of the reorientation of the mesogen following particle rotation by means of a simple elastic model. Complex structures like targets and double-armed helices can be generated and controlled by tuning an out-of-plane electric field.