Publications


Title : Arrangement dependence of interparticle force in nematic colloids

Language: English
Type: Article
Authors: Takahiro Kishita, Kenji Takahashi, Masatoshi Ichikawa, Jun-ichi Fukuda and Yasuyuki Kimura
Journal: Physical Review E
Volume: 81
Number: 1
Month: 1
Year: 2010
Actual year: 2009
Pages: 10701-4
URL:   http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.81.010701
doi:   10.1103/PhysRevE.81.010701
Keywords: PACS: 61.30.Jf, 61.30.Gd, 82.70.Dd
Abstract: We have experimentally and theoretically studied the interparticle force between two colloidal particles with different sizes accompanied by hyperbolic hedgehog defects in a nematic liquid crystal. The force f was directly measured using dual-beam optical tweezers and calculated theoretically from the equilibrium tensor field around the particles. The dependence of f on the center-to-center distance between particles of different sizes R is different from that for particles with the same size. The magnitude of f depends on the relative arrangement of the particles: f is larger when a defect between the particles belongs to the larger particle. From the theoretical calculation, the difference in f between the two arrangements, δf, monotonically increases with increasing size difference. The difference δf was experimentally and theoretically found to be proportional to R−4.6 at large R. The obtained exponent is comparable to the exponent of −5 predicted by electrostatic analogy.

"Arrangement dependence of interparticle force in nematic colloids"

Takahiro Kishita, Kenji Takahashi, Masatoshi Ichikawa, Jun-ichi Fukuda and Yasuyuki Kimura, Physical Review E, 81, 10701-4 (2010)