Elastic octopoles and colloidal structures in nematic liquid crystals

preprint2013arXivOpen access

Abstract

We propose a simple theoretical model which explains a formation of dipolar 2D and 3D colloidal structures in nematic liquid crystal. Colloidal particles are treated as effective hard spheres interacting via their elastic dipole, quadrupole and octopole moments. It is shown that octopole moment plays an important role in the formation of 2D and 3D nematic colloidal crystals. We generalize this assumption on the case of the external electric field and theoretically explain a giant electrostriction effect in 3D crystals observed recently [A. Nych et al., Nature Communications \textbf{4}, 1489 (2013)].

Explore this paper’s authors, topics and related work.

Building this map preview

BZPEER is loading the nearby papers, people, topics and institutions for this page.

Reviews 0

Write a reviewWrite

No reviews yet.

Discussion 0

Add a commentWrite

No comments yet.