While retaining its lamellar liquid crystal phase, K4Nb6O17 nanosheets were used as a template to sandwich and stabilize an alkylpoly(ethylene oxide) nonionic surfactant-water system showing monodomain (lamella) formation within the inorganic niobate sheets that appears to be not dependent on the surfactant liquid crystalline state in solution but more its concentration.

We experimentally investigate the interaction of two counter-propagating spatial optical solitons (nematicons) in bias-free nematic liquid crystals. We demonstrate the existence of vector solitons composed of two nematicons propagating in opposite directions and analyze their stability versus relative distance and input power.We observe the dynamic instability of two counterpropagating nematico...

A simple method for fabricating patternable micro-mirror devices by photo-induced alignment of dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) is demonstrated. The CLC texture can be changed from random distribution to nearly perfect planar by the photo-excited adsorbed dyes. This structure transformation leads to a substantial reflectivity increase. Using this photo-patterning technique, one- and t...

A new silyl terminated bent-core mesogen was synthesized which shows a randomly tilted SmCR phase and a columnar phase with p2gg lattice as new modes of self-assembly in this class of compounds.

The alignment properties and distribution of flow speed during Poiseuille flow through a microchannel of a nematic liquid crystal in a cell with homeotropic surface alignment has been measured using a combination of conoscopy, fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy, and time-lapse imaging. Two topologically distinct director profiles, with associated fluid velocity fields, are found to exi...

A kind of inverse stochastic resonance (ISR) observed in ac-driven electroconvection (EC) in a nematic liquid crystal is presented. In successive pattern evolutions by increasing noise intensity V_{N}, a typical EC (with a normalized amplitude A_{0}=1 at V_{N}=0) disappears (A_{0}→0), and then the rest state (A_{0}=0) reenters into the EC (A_{0}=1); eventually, it develops into complicated EC(A...