Controlled Nanoparticle Targeting and Nanoparticle-Driven Nematic Structural Transition

Figure 1

(a) Schematic presentation of the hybrid plan-parallel cell of thickness hosting a cylindrical NP. The diameter and the height of the NP are set to be equal to  nm and . (b) Cross section through the boojum is shown where we plot the degree of biaxiality . On the left side of the figure we schematically sketch typical nematic director field variation along the -axis away from the axis of symmetry. A biaxial shell joins the isotropic finger-tip and the upper surface. Along the cylindrical axis the system exhibits uniaxial ordering due to topological reasons. With dashed (dotted) line we mark regions exhibiting negative (positive) uniaxiality. In the illustration the anchoring strength at the top plane is finite. The characteristic defect size is comparable to the biaxial correlation length. The colour bar of is shown on the right side of the figure.

(a)

(b)