Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Pairam E
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3677424 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Pairam Ekapop E Vallamkondu Jayalakshmi J Koning Vinzenz V van Zuiden Benjamin C BC Ellis Perry W PW Bates Martin A MA Vitelli Vincenzo V Fernandez-Nieves Alberto A
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20130520 23
We stabilize nematic droplets with handles against surface tension-driven instabilities, using a yield-stress material as outer fluid, and study the complex nematic textures and defect structures that result from the competition between topological constraints and the elasticity of the nematic liquid crystal. We uncover a surprisingly persistent twisted configuration of the nematic director inside the droplets when tangential anchoring is established at their boundaries, which we explain after c ...[more]