Colloidal Doping of Cholesterics and Blue Phases

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Cates, M (University of Edinburgh)
• Tuesday 25 June 2013, 09:45-10:30
• Seminar Room 1 Newton Institute.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Mustapha Amrani.

The Mathematics of Liquid Crystals

At the interface between a cholesteric phase and an isotropic fluid, an array of defects arises. This creates for embedded colloidal particles a free energy landscape that depends on the ratio of colloid size to cholesteric pitch and on the strength of anchoring at the colloid-cholesteric interface. I shall outline recent experiments and simulations that probe this landscape. A somewhat similar situation arises when colloids are added to blue phases, for which the defect array is not interfacial but permeates the bulk phase. Preliminary simulations suggest a variety of structures, many metastable, with interesting transitions inducible by external fields and/or flow.

This talk is part of the Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All CMS events
• Featured lists
• INI info aggregator
• Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series
• School of Physical Sciences
• Seminar Room 1 Newton Institute
• bld31

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.