Yucen Han, Doctor, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

Wei Gong, Associate Professor

Nematic Liquid Crystal Systems and Confinement Geometries

14:30-15:30 September 13 (Wednesday), Z311

Nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) are anisotropic material intermediate that combines the fluidity of liquids with the orientational order of solids. NLCs are best known for their applications in the thriving liquid crystal display industry. They have tremendous potential in nanoscience, biophysics and material design, all of which rely on scientific computing, applied analysis and mathematical modelling for studying stable/unstable NLC states, switching mechanisms, and dynamical processes on energy landscapes.

One of the factors that has dramatic effects on the defect structures, state stability, and solution landscapes of NLC systems is the confinement geometry. To investigate the relation between the NLC system and the confinement geometry, firstly, we study the effects of a given confinement geometry on the NLC equilibria and solution landscapes within the Landau-de Gennes framework.

The next question is that without the constraint of confinement geometry what are the equilibria and solution landscape of shapeshifting NLCs? We study the interaction of tactoids with bacteria and the solution landscapes of shapeshifting NLCs, and conduct the shape optimization by coupling the NLC models with the phase field method.

Last but not least, we propose a question of how the geometry can help to stabilise the NLC system with desired defect properties, which is important either from a mathematical or application point of view, and give two models to solve this question.