We present experimental results on dense corn-starch suspensions as examples of non-Brownian, nearly hard particles that undergo continuous and discontinuous shear thickening (DST) at intermediate and high densities, respectively. Our results offer strong support for recent theories involving a stress-dependent effective contact friction among particles. We show, however, that in the DST regime, where theory might lead one to expect steady-state shear bands oriented layerwise along the vorticity axis, the real flow is unsteady. To explain this, we argue that steady-state banding is generically ruled out by the requirement that, for hard non-Brownian particles, the solvent pressure and the normal-normal component of the particle stress must balance separately across the interface between bands. (Otherwise, there is an unbalanced migration flux.) However, long-lived transient shear bands remain possible.

Yielding behavior is well known in attractive colloidal suspensions. Adhesive non-Brownian suspensions, in which the interparticle bonds are due to finite-size contacts, also show yielding behavior. We use a combination of steady-state, oscillatory, and shear reversal rheology to probe the physical origins of yielding in the latter class of materials and find that yielding is not simply a matter of breaking adhesive bonds but involves unjamming from a shear-jammed state in which the microstructure has adapted to the direction of the applied load. Comparison with a recent constraint-based rheology model shows the importance of friction in determining the yield stress, suggesting novel ways to tune the flow of such suspensions.Yielding behavior is well known in attractive colloidal suspensions. Adhesive non-Brownian suspensions, in which the interparticle bonds are due to finite-size contacts, also show yielding behavior. We use a combination of steady-state, oscillatory, and shear reversal rheology to probe the physical origins of yielding in the latter class of materials and find that yielding is not simply a matter of breaking adhesive bonds but involves unjamming from a shear-jammed state in which the microstructure has adapted to the direction of the applied load. Comparison with a recent constraint-based rheology model shows the importance of friction in determining the yield stress, suggesting novel ways to tune the flow of such suspensions.

Patterned liquid crystal (LC) configurations find widespread applications in functional devices such as lenses, gratings, displays and soft-robots. In combination with external stimuli such as an applied electric field, photo-alignment at the surfaces offers an attractive way to stabilize different LC structures in the bulk of a device. Herein, a planar LC cell is developed using a photo-alignment layer at the bottom substrate and a rubbed nylon film at the top substrate. Patterned planar photo-alignment is achieved by modulating the linear polarization with a spatial light modulator (SLM) and projecting the pattern onto the bottom substrate. A ring pattern is written into the photo-alignment layer with a continuous rotation between an inner radius and an outer radius. In the other regions the alignment is parallel to the rubbing direction at the top substrate. Four different LC configurations are observed: structure A in which a ring-shaped region is formed with an out of plane (vertical) orientation perpendicular to the substrate, structure B which has a single disclination loop and a 180° twist at the inner region of the photo-patterned ring (r < r_in), structure C which has no discontinuities but a 360° twist in the inner region of the photo-patterned ring (r < r_in) and structure D with 2 disclination loops. The LC director configuration for all 4 structures is simulated through finite element (FE) Q-tensor simulations and the optical transmission for each structure is simulated using a generalized beam propagation method.

Suspended droplets of cholesteric (chiral nematic) liquid crystals spontaneously rotate in the presence of a heat flux due to a temperature gradient, a phenomenon known as the Lehmann effect. So far, it is not clear whether this effect is due to the chirality of the phase and the molecules or only to the chirality of the director field. Here, we report the continuous rotation in a temperature gradient of nematic droplets of a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal featuring a twisted bipolar configuration. The achiral nature of the molecular components leads to a random handedness of the spontaneous twist, resulting in the coexistence of droplets rotating in the two senses, with speeds proportional to the temperature gradient and inversely proportional to the droplet radius. This result shows that a macroscopic twist of the director field is sufficient to induce a rotation of the droplets, and that the phase and the molecules do not need to be chiral. This suggests that one can also explain the Lehmann rotation in cholesteric liquid crystals without introducing the Leslie thermomechanical coupling—only present in chiral mesophases. An explanation based on the Akopyan and Zeldovich theory of thermomechanical effects in nematics is proposed and discussed.

In practically all branches of physics, different types of solitons, with a number of them enjoying topological protection, are found. Here we explore how one- and two-dimensional topological solitons formed by spatially localized continuous orientational patterns of optical axis in uniaxial birefringent media interact with light. These solitons, in the forms of one-dimensional twist walls and two-dimensional skyrmions, are controllably generated in thin films of cholesteric liquid crystals to introduce spatially localized patterns of effective refractive index. Laser light interacts with these solitons as quasiparticles or extended interfaces of different effective refractive indices seen by ordinary and extraordinary waves propagating within the liquid-crystal medium. Despite our system’s complex nature, our findings can be paralleled with the familiar phenomena of total reflection and refraction at interfaces of optically distinct media, albeit these behaviors arise in a medium with homogeneous density and chemical composition but with spatial variations of molecular and optical-axis orientations. By exploiting the facile response of liquid crystals to external stimuli, we show that the twist walls and skyrmions can be used to steer laser beams and to act as lenses and other optical elements, which can be reconfigured by low-voltage fields and other means. Analytical and numerical modeling, with the latter based on free-energy-minimizing configurations of the topological solitons, closely reproduce our experimental findings. The fundamental insights provided by this work potentially can be extended also to three-dimensional solitons, such as Hopfions, and may lead to technological applications of optical-axis topological solitons in telecommunications, nanophotonics, electro-optics, and so on.

The Lehmann effect is the continuous rotation of cholesteric droplets subjected to a temperature gradient. Discovered by Otto Lehmann in 1900, this effect was re-observed recently by several authors not only in cholesterics but also in nematics when the director field is twisted inside the droplets. In most experiments the droplets coexist with their isotropic liquid, but the Lehmann effect can also be observed when the droplets are dispersed in an isotropic liquid in which the LC is partly miscible. After a brief history on the Lehmann effect and its first explanation by Leslie in 1968, we will review the main experimental results obtained on this subject from 2008. In particular, the role of the temperature gradient, of the size of the droplets, of the textures and their orientation with respect to the temperature gradient, of the confinement effects, of the impurities and of the concentration of chiral molecules will be described. A special emphasis will also be placed on the research of hydrodynamic effects to answer the fundamental question of whether it is just the texture or the droplet itself that rotates. We will then review the different models proposed in the literature to explain the Lehmann effect. Among them are two thermomechanical models directly based on the Leslie explanation (named TM1- and TM2-models), a thermomechanical model of rotating texture “surfing on a heat wave (TM3-model), a model of melting-growth (MG-model) that only applies when the droplets coexist with their own isotropic liquid, and a pure hydrodynamic model (H-model) based on the existence of Marangoni flows–currently, only evidenced in emulsified cholesterics. The strengths and weaknesses of each model will be discussed in relation with the experimental results.