CENTER FOR APPLIED MATHEMATICS AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS
UNIVERZA V MARIBORU UNIVERSITY OF MARIBOR
KREKOVA 2 SI-2000 MARIBOR SLOVENIA
Phone +386 62 213151 and 2296440 $\bullet$ Fax +386 62 213151 and 213541
Robnik@uni-mb.si $\bullet$ www.camtp.uni-mb.si
PROF.DR. MARKO ROBNIK, DIRECTOR

Seminarsko predavanje
Centra za uporabno matematiko in teoretično fiziko

Nematic Colloidal Crystals, Superstructures and Optical Microresonators

Professor Dr. Igor Muševič

J. Stefan Institute and University of Ljubljana
Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract. Dispersions of particles in liquid crystals show several novel classes of anisotropic forces between inclusions, which result in an amazing diversity of assembled patterns, such as linear chains and 2D colloidal crystals of microspheres [1]. The forces between the particles in nematic colloids are extremely strong, anisotropic and long-range. This leads to a broad variety of colloidal assemblies in liquid crystals, which cannot be observed in isotropic solvents: colloidal wires, assembled by entangled topological defects, superstructures in the mixtures of large and small colloidal particles and a broad variety of 2D nematic colloidal crystals. In all cases, the colloidal binding energy is several orders of magnitude stronger compared to water based colloids. The mechanisms of assembly in nematic colloids are discussed, which can lead to new approaches to soft matter photonic devices [2].
1.I. Muševič, M. Škarabot, U. Tkalec, M. Ravnik, S. Žumer, Science 313, 954(2006)
2.M. Humar, M. Ravnik, S. Pajk, I.Muševič, Nature Photon. 3, 595(2009).

Seminarsko predavanje bo v petek, 21. maja 2010 ob 15:15 uri v seminarski sobi CAMTP, Krekova 2, pritličje. Vljudno vabljeni vsi zainteresirani, tudi študentje.

Prof.Dr. Marko Robnik
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