Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Liquid crystals

Interplay of topologies

Nature Materials volume 12, pages 187–189 (2013)Cite this article

Subjects

In a uniformly aligned liquid crystal, colloidal particles having a number of holes give rise to arrays of topological defects that are associated with the particles' topology.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Examples of topological defects in topologically confined liquid crystals.
Figure 2: The types of topological defects induced by handlebody-shaped particles in liquid crystals are dictated by the particles' topology6.

References

  1. Kleman, M., Michel, L. & Toulouse, G. J. Physique Lett. 38, L195–L197 (1976).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Volovik, G. E. & Mineev, V. P. Sov. Phys. JETP 45, 1186–1196 (1977).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Chuang, I., Durrer, R., Turok, N. & Yurke, B. Science 251, 1336–1342 (1991).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Hindmarsh, M. B. & Kibble, T. W. B. Rep. Prog. Phys. 58, 477–562 (1995).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Kuzmin, V. A., Rybakov, V. A. & Shaposhnikov, M. E. Phys. Lett. B 155, 36–42 (1985).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Senyuk, B. et al. Nature 493, 200–205 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Volovik, G. E. & Lavrentovich, O. D. Sov. Phys. JETP 58, 1159–1166 (1983).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Terentjev, E. M. Europhys. Lett. 32, 607–612 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Geng, Y., Almeida, P. L., Figueirinhas, J. L., Terentjev, E. M. & Godinho, M. H. Soft Matter 8, 3634–3640 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Petrov, P. G. & Terentjev, E. M. Langmuir 17, 2942–2949 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Terentjev, E. M. Phys. Rev. E 51, 1330–1337 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Poulin, P., Stark, H., Lubensky, T. C. & Weitz, D. A. Science 275, 1770–1773 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Grollau, S., Abbott, N. L. & de Pablo, J. J. Phys. Rev. E 67, 011702 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Loudet, J-C., Barois, P. & Poulin, P. Nature 407, 611–613 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Mori, H. & Nakanishi, H. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn 58, 1281–1286 (1988).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eugene Terentjev is at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK,

    Eugene Terentjev

Authors
  1. Eugene Terentjev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eugene Terentjev.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Terentjev, E. Interplay of topologies. Nature Mater 12, 187–189 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3583

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3583

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing AI and Robotics

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: AI and Robotics newsletter — what matters in AI and robotics research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: AI and Robotics