A self-quenched defect glass in a colloid-nematic liquid crystal composite |
| |
Authors: | Wood T A Lintuvuori J S Schofield A B Marenduzzo D Poon W C K |
| |
Institution: | Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Edinburgh, James Clerk Maxwell Building, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK. |
| |
Abstract: | Colloidal particles immersed in liquid crystals frustrate orientational order. This generates defect lines known as disclinations. At the core of these defects, the orientational order drops sharply. We have discovered a class of soft solids, with shear moduli up to 10(4) pascals, containing high concentrations of colloidal particles (volume fraction φ ? 20%) directly dispersed into a nematic liquid crystal. Confocal microscopy and computer simulations show that the mechanical strength derives from a percolated network of defect lines entangled with the particles in three dimensions. Such a "self-quenched glass" of defect lines and particles can be considered a self-organized analog of the "vortex glass" state in type II superconductors. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 PubMed 等数据库收录! |
|