laser assisted self-assembly of organic micro sheets in a liquid crystal

What is it about?

Colloidal self-assembly has been one of the major driving themes in material science to obtain functional and advanced optical materials with complex architecture. Most of the nematic colloids reported so far are based on the optically isotropic spherical microparticles. We study organic single crystal micro-sheets and investigate their orientation, interaction and directed assembly in a nematic liquid crystal. The micro-sheets induce planar surface anchoring of the liquid crystal. The elasticity mediated pair interaction of micro-sheets shows quadrupolar characteristics.

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Why is it important?

The self-assembly of the micro-sheets is assisted by a laser tweezer to form larger two-dimensional structures which have the potential for application of colloids in photonics.