We report on a new experimental procedure for forming and studying polar smectic liquid-crystal films. A free-standing smectic film is put in contact with a liquid drop, so that the film has one liquid-crystal/air interface and one liquid-crystal/liquid interface. This polar environment results in changes in the orientational order parameter textures observed in the film, including a boojum tex...

We report on free-standing NiTi alloy nanowires (120 nm × 75 nm) fabricated using a technique referred to as "nanoskiving", which complements conventional thin film sputter deposition with ultramicrotomy for thin sectioning. To date, the technique has been limited to pure metals without exploring metallic alloys. Leveraging the technique for the fabrication of shape memory alloy (SMA) nanostruc...

The director structures, meniscus profile, and defects in free-standing films of the twist grain boundary TGBA and UTGBC* liquid crystals were studied. The films were characterized by a combination of polarizing microscopy and fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy. Five principal regions of meniscus were distinguished. When film thickness in the meniscus is much smaller then the TGB pitch...

The literature on polymer latex film formation has grown enormously in recent times--driven by the need to find alternatives for solvent-based systems with their adverse environmental impacts. Although greater insight has been shown by the use of modern instrumental techniques such as small angle neutron scattering, direct non-radiative energy transfer and atomic force microscopy, the actual me...

We developed a glasses-free 3D stereoscopic display using an LCD display panel and a special grating film for stereoscopic viewing. The display screen is divided in half in order that left and right regions provide the stereoscopic images for left and right eyes. Because both stereoscopic images are not in the same position, it is difficult for the observer to view the 3D image by the stereovie...