In this work, through investigating a series of liquid, glassy, and crystalline samples with ultrafast multiple-mode 2D IR and IR transient absorption methods, we demonstrated that the signal anisotropy of vibrational relaxation-induced heat effects is determined by both relative molecular orientations and molecular rotations. If the relative molecular orientations are randomized or molecular r...

Depletion interaction potentials between micron-sized colloidal particles are induced by nanometer-scale surfactant micelles composed of hexaethylene glycol monododecyl ether (C_{12}E_{6}), and they are measured by video microscopy. The strength and range of the depletion interaction is revealed to arise from variations in shape anisotropy of the surfactant micelles. This shape anisotropy incre...

Homeotropic nematic liquid crystal cells with a photosensitive wall and negative dielectric anisotropy exhibit, under the influence of local illumination, stable vortexes with swirling arms that are trapped at the illuminated area. Close to the Fréedericksz transition an amplitude equation is derived, which allows us to understand the origin of the induced vortex and the competition between the...

We study classical Heisenberg antiferromagnets with uniaxial exchange anisotropy and a cubic anisotropy term on simple cubic lattices in an external magnetic field using ground state considerations and extensive Monte Carlo simulations. In addition to the antiferromagnetic phase field–induced spin–flop and non–collinear, biconical phases may occur. Phase diagrams and critical as well as multicr...