%0 Journal Article
%T Microparticles confined to a nematic liquid crystal shell
%+ Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (L2C)
%+ Department of Physics [Ljubljana]
%+ Nanobiophysique
%+ Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics
%A Gharbi, Mohamed Amine
%A Sec, David
%A Lopez-Leon, Teresa
%A Nobili, Maurizio
%A Ravnik, Miha
%A Zumer, Slobodan
%A Blanc, Christophe
%< avec comité de lecture
%Z L2C:13-158
%@ 1744-683X
%J Soft Matter
%I Royal Society of Chemistry
%V 9
%P 6911
%8 2013-03-21
%D 2013
%R 10.1039/C3SM00126A
%K Defects
%K liquid crystal topology
%Z Physics [physics]/Condensed Matter [cond-mat]/Soft Condensed Matter [cond-mat.soft]
%Z Engineering Sciences [physics]/MaterialsJournal articles
%X A seminal paper [D. R. Nelson, Nano Lett., 2002, 2, 1125.] has proposed that a nematic coating could be used to create a valency for spherical colloidal particles through the functionalization of nematic topological defects. Experimental realizations however question the complex behaviour of solid particles and defects embedded in such a nematic spherical shell. In order to address the related topological and geometrical issues, we have studied micrometer-sized silica beads trapped in nematic shells. We underline the mechanisms that strongly modify the texture of the simple (particle-free) shells when colloidal particles are embedded. Finally, we show how the coupling between capillarity and nematic elasticity offers new ways to control the valence and directionality of shells.
%G English
%L hal-00840285
%U https://hal.science/hal-00840285
%~ ESPCI
%~ CNRS
%~ PARISTECH
%~ NBP
%~ L2C
%~ PSL
%~ MIPS
%~ UNIV-MONTPELLIER
%~ ESPCI-PSL
%~ UM-2015-2021