title: Geometry-guided colloidal interactions and self-tiling of elastic dipoles formed by truncated pyramid particles in liquid crystals.
abstract: The progress of realizing colloidal structures mimicking natural forms of organization in condensed matter is inherently limited by the availability of suitable colloidal building blocks. To enable new forms of crystalline and quasicrystalline self-organization of colloids, we develop truncated pyramidal particles that form nematic elastic dipoles with long-range electrostaticlike and geometry-guided low-symmetry short-range interactions. Using a combination of nonlinear optical imaging, laser tweezers, and video microscopy, we characterize colloidal pair interactions and demonstrate unusual forms of self-tiling of these particles into crystalline, quasicrystalline, and other arrays. Our findings are explained using an electrostatics analogy along with liquid crystal elasticity and symmetry breaking considerations, potentially expanding photonic and electro-optic applications of colloids.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Bohdan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Senyuk
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Qingkun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Ephraim
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bililign
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Philip D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Nystrom
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.|Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.|Liquid Crystals Materials Research Center and Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.|Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: Ivan I
authors.initials: II
authors.lastname: Smalyukh