We investigated the physical properties of low concentration ferroelectric nematic colloids, using calorimetry, optical methods, infrared spectroscopy, and capacitance studies. The resulting homogeneous colloids possess a significantly amplified nematic orientational coupling. We find that the nematic orientation coupling increases by approximately 10% for particle concentrations of 0.2%. A man...

A herringbone "easy axis" pattern is scribed into a polyimide alignment layer for liquid-crystal orientation using the stylus of an atomic force microscope. Owing to the liquid crystal's bend elasticity K33 , the nematic director is unable to follow the sharp turn in the scribed easy axis, but instead relaxes over an extrapolation length L=K33/W2φ, where W2φ is the quadratic azimuthal anchoring...

Unusual double four-lobe nematic liquid crystal (LC) textures were observed in the carbon nanotube (CNT)-doped nematic LC under electric field. Through the electro-optical studies in a wide range of vertical electric fields in the direction of the long axis of the LC molecules, it was realized that the double four-lobe nematic LC textures were formed in the range of 120 to 160 V(rms) at 1 Hz. T...

We numerically study many-body interactions among colloidal particles suspended in a nematic liquid crystal, using a fluid particle dynamics method, which properly incorporates dynamical coupling among particles, nematic orientation, and flow field. Based on simulation results, we propose a new type of interparticle interaction in addition to well-known quadrupolar interaction for particles acc...

Until now, several attempts have been made to obtain axicons by using liquid crystals. Previous results had always a considerable deviation from the linear response and the resulting aperture is square. In addition, classical fabrications methods are expensive and only produce fixed phase profiles. In this study, a novel structure to obtain tunable axicons with a perfect conical shape and a cir...

A new series of teraryl 2-(4-alkoxybiphen-4'-yl)-5-methylpyridines (nO-PPPyMe, n = 3-8) nematic liquid crystal compounds, bearing a biphenylene core and a picoline terminus, were synthesized using a short two-step reaction, and overall yields between 34% and 38% were obtained. Spectral analysis results were in accordance with the expected structures. The thermotropic behavior of the teraryl liq...

In this paper, we develop a first-order and a second-order coupled energy stable numerical scheme respectively for a Q-tensor based hydrodynamic model of nematic liquid crystal flows. We then extend the first order coupled scheme to a decoupled scheme and show that it is energy stable as well. The fully coupled schemes are implemented in 2dimensional space and time, with which we study defect d...

Using deuteron nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and dynamic light scattering, we study the orientational order and dynamics of a BL038-5CB liquid-crystal mixture in a holographic polymer dispersed liquid-crystal material (HPDLC) as used for switchable diffractive optical elements. At high temperatures, where the liquid crystal is predominantly in the isotropic phase, the HPDLC deuteron NMR line...

Title: Analysis of Equilibria with One-Half Degree Defects for the Landau-de Gennes Model of Nematic Liquid Crystals Abstract: We investigate the structure of nematic liquid crystal thin films described by the Landau–de Gennes tensor-valued order parameter model with Dirichlet boundary conditions on the sides of nonzero degree. We prove that as the elasticity constant goes to zero in the energy...

P, Vm, T data have been measured for the nematic and isotropic phases of 3-cyanobenzyl 2,5-bis (4-n-octyloxybenzoyloxy)benzoate between 273 and 423 K and up to 250 MPa. The volume changes accompanying the crystal nematic and nematic isotropic transitions have been determined. The corresponding enthalpy changes have been calculated using the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. The p, Vm, T data enable ...