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