Effective pair interactions between colloidal particles at a nematic-isotropic interface

The Landau-de Gennes free energy is used to study theoretically the interaction of parallel cylindrical colloidal particles trapped at a nematic-isotropic interface. We find that the effective interaction potential is non-monotonic. The corresponding force-distance curves exhibit jumps and hysteresi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2005-04, Vol.70 (1), p.95-101
Main Authors: Andrienko, D, Tasinkevych, M, Dietrich, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
61.30.Dk
61.30.Jf
82.70.Dd
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Summary:The Landau-de Gennes free energy is used to study theoretically the interaction of parallel cylindrical colloidal particles trapped at a nematic-isotropic interface. We find that the effective interaction potential is non-monotonic. The corresponding force-distance curves exhibit jumps and hysteresis upon approach/separation due to the creation/annihilation of topological defects. Minimization results suggest a simple empirical pair potential for the effective colloid-colloid interaction at the interface. We propose that the interface-mediated interaction can play an important role in self-organization and clustering of colloidal particles at such interfaces.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/epl/i2004-10455-3