Large-scale self-organization of reconfigurable topological defect networks in nematic liquid crystals

Yuji Sasaki, V.S.R. Jampani (), Chiharu Tanaka, Nobutaka Sakurai, Shin Sakane, Khoa V. Le, Fumito Araoka () and Hiroshi Orihara ()
Additional contact information
Yuji Sasaki: Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University
V.S.R. Jampani: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)
Chiharu Tanaka: Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University
Nobutaka Sakurai: Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University
Shin Sakane: Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University
Khoa V. Le: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)
Fumito Araoka: RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS)
Hiroshi Orihara: Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Topological defects in nematic liquid crystals are ubiquitous. The defects are important in understanding the fundamental properties of the systems, as well as in practical applications, such as colloidal self-assembly, optical vortex generation and templates for molecular self-assembly. Usually, spatially and temporally stable defects require geometrical frustration imposed by surfaces; otherwise, the system relaxes because of the high cost of the elastic energy. So far, multiple defects are kept in bulk nematic liquid crystals by top-down lithographic techniques. In this work, we stabilize a large number of umbilical defects by doping with an ionic impurity. This method does not require pre-patterned surfaces. We demonstrate that molecular reorientation controlled by an AC voltage induces periodic density modulation of ions accumulated at an electrically insulating polymer interface, resulting in self-organization of a two-dimensional square array of umbilical defects that is reconfigurable and tunable.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13238 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms13238

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13238

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().