Confinement effect on interparticle potential in nematic colloids.
We studied the confinement effect on the interaction force in nematic liquid crystal colloids with spherical particles inducing planar anchoring. Using magneto-optical tweezers, we measured the spatial dependence of the quadrupolar structural interparticle force over 4 orders of magnitude. For small separations, the interparticle potential follows the power law, whereas for separations larger than the sample thickness, it decreases exponentially with the decay length proportional to the sample thickness. Experimental results are reproduced by using the Landau-de Gennes free-energy minimization approach.
Vilfan
Mojca
M
J. Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Osterman
Natan
N
Copic
Martin
M
Ravnik
Miha
M
Zumer
Slobodan
S
Kotar
Jurij
J
Babic
Dusan
D
Poberaj
Igor
I