This paper describes the viscosity variation of a liquid crystal under electric field, and its application to a controllable sliding bearing. Liquid crystal is known as a homogeneous organic liquid characterized by the long-range order of its molecular orientation. When an electric field is applied to a liquid crystal film as lubricant, the orientational order of molecules become parallel to th...

The competitive binding of a molecule forming a liquid crystal and a targeted analyte to a common molecular receptor presented at a solid surface possessing nanometer-scale topography is used to trigger an easily visualized surface-driven change in the orientation of a micrometer-thick film of liquid crystal. Diffusion of the targeted analyte from atmosphere to surface-immobilized receptor acro...

The generation of surface anisotropy by photochemical means has been proposed as an attractive method to align liquid crystals. In this paper, we present an experimental study of the alignment induced on a liquid crystal by a polymer film containing azo-dye groups in the side chain. Optical measurements were performed in nematic liquid crystal cells to determine the azimuthal and zenithal ancho...

This work fabricates a terahertz (THz) metamaterial device, whose structure consists of split ring resonator array/ plastic substrate/ Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) film/ liquid crystals/ ITO film/ plastic substrate. Experiment results show that the resonance of the THz metamaterial device can be enhanced as voltage is applied to the liquid crystals. The enhancement will be more significant as higher ...

Crystalline thin films of organic semiconductors are a good candidate for field effect transistor (FET) materials in printed electronics. However, there are currently two main problems, which are associated with inhomogeneity and poor thermal durability of these films. Here we report that liquid crystalline materials exhibiting a highly ordered liquid crystal phase of smectic E (SmE) can solve ...

A solid object can be coated by a nonwetting liquid since a receding contact line cannot exceed a critical speed. In this Letter we study the dynamical wetting transition at which a liquid film gets deposited by withdrawing a vertical plate out of a liquid reservoir. It has recently been predicted that this wetting transition is critical with diverging time scales and coincides with the disappe...

Abstract A novel method for measuring the interfacial liquid film thickness between immiscible liquids of a slug/droplet in a micropipe is proposed. This method is capable of measuring an oil slug/droplet in water with the relative refractive index (m) between the immiscible liquids very close to one in a capillary tube. Unlike the measurement configuration for an air slug in water, an optical ...

A dewetting viscous film develops a characteristic fluid rim at its receding edge due to mass conservation. In the course of the dewetting process, the rim becomes unstable via an instability of Rayleigh-Plateau type. An important difference exists between this classic instability of a liquid column and the rim instability in a thin film as the growth of the rim is continuously fueled by the re...

We employ a simple model to describe the phase behavior of 4He and Ar in a hypothetical porous material consisting of a regular array of infinitely long, solid, parallel cylinders. We find that high porosity geometries exhibit two transitions: from vapor to film and from film to capillary condensed liquid. At low porosity, the film is replaced by a "necking" configuration, and for a range of in...

The mechanical force relationships that distinguish normal from chronic reflux at sphincter opening are poorly understood and difficult to measure in vivo. Our aim was to apply physics-based computer simulations to determine mechanical pathogenesis of gastroesophageal reflux. A mathematical model of the gastroesophageal segment (GES) was developed, incorporating the primary anatomical and physi...