Orientation of Solute Molecules in Nematic Liquid Crystal Solvents

Structure of Molecules by NMR Spectroscopy Using Liquid Crystal Solvents

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of molecules aligned in nematic liquid crystalline media provides information on the molecular structure and order parameters. The partial alignment of the molecules in the liquid crystalline phases gives rise to residual intramolecular dipolar couplings which are dependent on internuclear distances, and therefore yield information on the structure of mol...

Nematic Liquid-Crystal Colloids

This article provides a concise review of a new state of colloidal matter called nematic liquid-crystal colloids. These colloids are obtained by dispersing microparticles of different shapes in a nematic liquid crystal that acts as a solvent for the dispersed particles. The microparticles induce a local deformation of the liquid crystal, which then generates topological defects and long-range f...

Threshold Flexoelectric Effect in Nematic Liquid Crystal

Microscale locomotion in a nematic liquid crystal.

Microorganisms often encounter anisotropy, for example in mucus and biofilms. We study how anisotropy and elasticity of the ambient fluid affects the speed of a swimming microorganism with a prescribed stroke. Motivated by recent experiments on swimming bacteria in anisotropic environments, we extend a classical model for swimming microorganisms, the Taylor swimming sheet, actuated by small-amp...

Work fluctuations in a nematic liquid crystal

The orientation fluctuations of the director of a liquid crystal are measured, by a sensitive polarization interferometer, close to the Fréedericksz transition, which is a second order transition driven by an electric field. Using mean field theory, we define the work injected into the system by a change of the electric field and we calibrate it using Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem. We show th...