Biomedical subjects

Samo Kralj

Publications and source records attributed to Samo Kralj.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Random anisotropy nematic model: nematic-non-nematic mixture.

The influence of a random-anisotropy- (RA-) type disorder on the phase separation of the nematogen-non-nematogen mixture is studied. A combination of the phenomenological Landau-de Gennes and Flory-Huggins theories is used. We assume that the non-nematogen component (i.e., impurity) enforces the RA disorder to the enclosing thermotropic liquid-crystal (LC) phase. The Imry-Ma argument is used according to which the lower-temperature phase exhibits a domain-type pattern. The disorder strength is measured in terms of the dimensionless parameter Lambda. We consider the case in which the LC molecules and impurities mix in the isotropic phase for Lambda=0. The impurities enforce a finite degree of orientational ordering even in the high-temperature paranematic phase. In the low-temperature phase they give rise to a domain-type structure, resulting in the distorted nematic (speronematic) phase. We show that the onset of orientational ordering increases the phase separation tendency. The RA field, however, opposes this tendency. With increasing value of Lambda the difference between the paranematic and speronematic ordering decreases. Consequently the structure of the phase-separated pattern can be much more complex in comparison to the Lambda=0 case.

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PubMed2006

Soft-stiff regime crossover for an aerosil network dispersed in liquid crystals.

Hydrophilic and hydrophobic aerosil particles immersed in S-(+)-[4-(2-methylbutyl) phenyl 4-n-octylbiphenyl-4-carboxylate] or [p-(n-decyloxy) benzylidene-p-amino-(2-methylbutyl) cinnamate] compound have been studied by employing x-ray diffraction. The aerosil-induced relative layer compression Delta d has been measured in the smectic A phase as a function of aerosil concentration x. Delta d(x) is shown to sensitively monitor the intermediate-rigid transition of the adaptive aerosil network. The dominant mechanism leading to the Delta d(x) profiles is the global establishment of the aerosil-induced molecular tilt in the smectic A phase.

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PubMed2005

Transformation of phase transitions driven by an anisotropic random field.

We carry out a comparative study of the influence of a random anisotropy field on continuous and discontinuous phase transitions. The ordered phase, which is reached via a continuous symmetry breaking phase transition, is characterized by an order parameter and by a corresponding hydrodynamic continuum field. We assume that the response of the hydrodynamic field to the imposed disorder results in a domainlike pattern of the system. For a strong enough disorder both transitions become gradual. For weaker disorder strengths the disorder converts a second order transition into a discontinuous one.

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PubMed2005

Confinement-induced orientational order in a ferroelectric liquid crystal containing dispersed aerosils.

The study of the smectic-A to chiral smectic-C(*) phase transition of the liquid crystal S-(+)-[4-(2(')-methyl butyl) phenyl 4(')-n-octylbiphenyl-4-carboxylate] (CE8) containing dispersed hydrophilic aerosils reveals novel properties, important to understanding quenched disorder and confinement in ferroelectric liquid crystals. Smectic layer compression leads to a distribution of transition temperatures inducing smearing of the macroscopic data across the transition. A pronounced confinement-induced pretransitional tilted order is observed.

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PubMed2004

Influence of finite size and wetting on nematic and smectic phase behavior of liquid crystal confined to controlled-pore matrices.

The high-resolution calorimetric study was carried out on octylcyanobiphenyl liquid crystal (LC) confined to various controlled-pore glass (CPG) matrices with silane-treated surface. The diameter of the voids cross section ranged between 23.7 and 395 nm. The results are compared to those obtained previously on CPG voids nontreated with silane. We found a striking similarity between the shifts in the isotropic to nematic and nematic to smectic-A phase transition temperatures as a function of the void radius in which order parameter variations at the LC-void interface play the dominant role. Weaker temperature shifts are observed in silane-treated samples, where surface ordering tendency is larger. In nontreated samples, a finite-size scaling law in the maximum value of the heat capacity at the nematic to smectic-A transition was observed for void diameters larger than 20 nm. In silane-treated samples, this behavior is considerably changed by surface wetting interactions.

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PubMed2004

Local elastic stability for nematic liquid crystals.

We derive a stability criterion for nematic liquid crystals from a general study of the second variation of Frank's elastic free-energy functional. When applied to elementary director alignments compatible with the boundary conditions, such as the uniform alignment in a hybrid cell, this criterion is able to determine whether the most likely destabilizing mode is periodic or not, and to estimate the modulation length of such a mode, when it is periodic.

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PubMed2003

Calorimetric study of octylcyanobiphenyl liquid crystal confined to a controlled-pore glass.

We present a calorimetric study of the phase behavior of octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB) liquid crystal confined to a controlled-pore glass (CPG). We used CPG matrices with characteristic void diameters ranging from 400 to 20 nm. In bulk we obtain weakly first-order isotropic to nematic (I-N) phase transition and nearly continuous character of the nematic to smectic-A (N-SmA) phase transition. In all CPG matrices the I-N transition remains weakly first order, while the N-SmA one becomes progressively suppressed with decreasing CPG pore radius. With decreased pore diameters both phase transition temperatures monotonously decrease following similar trends, but increasing the stability range of the N phase. The heat-capacity response at the weakly first order I-N and continuous N-SmA phase transitions gradually approaches the tricritical-like and three-dimensional XY behavior, respectively. The main observed features were explained using a bicomponent single pore type phenomenological model.

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PubMed2003

Annihilation of nematic point defects: postcollision scenarios.

We perform a study of the annihilation of a nematic radial and hyperbolic point defects with the main focus on the confinement induced collision and postcollision scenarios. Brownian molecular dynamics on a semimicroscopic lattice is used. Initially a pair of defects, separated for 1.4-1.7 radii, is induced at the axis of the cylindrical capillary. In such a configuration defects start to approach slowly. In the early stage, their cores are negligibly influenced by the mutual interaction. When the distance becomes comparable to the nematic correlation length, the cores significantly deform. In the collision regime, defects gradually merge. We observe two qualitatively different scenarios in the postcollision regime, depending on the degree of (meta) stability of the initially imposed escaped structure with point defects.

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PubMed2002

Core hysteresis in nematic defects.

We study field-induced transformations in the biaxial core of a nematic disclination with strength m=1, employing the Landau-de Gennes order tensor parameter Q. We first consider the transition from the defectless escaped radial structure into the structure hosting a line defect with a negative uniaxial order parameter along the axis of a cylinder of radius R. The critical field of the transition monotonically increases with R and asymptotically approaches a value corresponding to xi(b)/xi(f) approximately 0.3, where the correlation lengths xi(b) and xi(f) are related to the biaxial order and the external field, respectively. Then, in the same geometry, we focus on the line defect structure with a positive uniaxial ordering along the axis, surrounded by the uniaxial sheath, the uniaxial cylinder of radius xi(u) with negative order parameter and director in the transverse direction. We study the hysteresis in the position of the uniaxial sheath upon increasing and decreasing the field strength. In general, two qualitatively different solutions exist, corresponding to the uniaxial sheath located close to the defect symmetry axis or close to the cylinder wall. This latter solution exists only for strong enough anchorings. The uniaxial sheath is for a line defect what the uniaxial ring is for a point defect: by resorting to an approximate analytic estimate, we show that essentially the same hysteresis exhibited by the uniaxial sheath is expected to occur at the uniaxial ring in the core structure of a point defect.

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