Work

Effective pair interactions between colloidal particles at a nematic-isotropic interface

Year: 2005

Type: article

Abstract: The Landau-de Gennes free energy is used to study theoretically the interaction of parallel cylindrical colloidal particles trapped at a nematic-isotropic interface. We find that the effective interaction potential is non-monotonic. The corresponding force-distance curves exhibit jumps and hysteresis upon approach/separation due to the creation/annihilation of topological defects. Minimization results suggest a simple empirical pair potential for the effective colloid-colloid interaction at the interface. We propose that the interface-mediated interaction can play an important role in self-organization and clustering of colloidal particles at such interfaces.

Source: Europhysics Letters (EPL)

DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2004-10455-3

Authors: D Andrienko, M Tasinkevych, S Dietrich

Institutions: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, University of Stuttgart, Max Planck Society

Language: English

Topic: Liquid Crystal Research Advancements

Subfield: Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

OpenAlex ID: W2076489322

FWCI: 1.913

Cites: 32

Cited by: 24

Related to: 10