TY - JOUR
T1 - Director-configurational transitions around microbubbles of hydrostatically regulated size in liquid crystals
AU - Völtz, C.
AU - Maeda, Y.
AU - Tabe, Y.
AU - Yokoyama, H.
PY - 2006/12/8
Y1 - 2006/12/8
N2 - A high-pressure technique is introduced which allows a continuous variation of the inclusion size in liquid crystal colloids. We use a nematic liquid crystal host into which micrometer-sized gas bubbles are injected. By applying hydrostatic pressures, the diameter of these gas bubbles can be continuously decreased via compression and absorption of gas into the host liquid crystal, so that the director configurations around a single bubble can be investigated as a function of the bubble size. The theoretically predicted transition from a hyperbolic hedgehog to a Saturn-ring configuration, on reduction of the particle size below a certain threshold, is confirmed to occur at the radius of a few micrometers.
AB - A high-pressure technique is introduced which allows a continuous variation of the inclusion size in liquid crystal colloids. We use a nematic liquid crystal host into which micrometer-sized gas bubbles are injected. By applying hydrostatic pressures, the diameter of these gas bubbles can be continuously decreased via compression and absorption of gas into the host liquid crystal, so that the director configurations around a single bubble can be investigated as a function of the bubble size. The theoretically predicted transition from a hyperbolic hedgehog to a Saturn-ring configuration, on reduction of the particle size below a certain threshold, is confirmed to occur at the radius of a few micrometers.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33845214763&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33845214763&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.227801
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.227801
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33845214763
VL - 97
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
SN - 0031-9007
IS - 22
M1 - 227801
ER -