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Updated: May 11, 2026

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality
Published on: March 11, 2022
Chirality screening and metastable states in chiral nematic colloids
V S R Jampani1, M Škarabot, S Čopar
1Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Abstract:
We show that forces between two colloidal particles in a thin layer of a chiral nematic liquid crystal strongly depend on the chirality of the liquid crystal. The observed pair potentials are attractive, but are oscillatory functions of colloidal separation. The number and the position of local energy minima increase with increasing chirality. The pair interaction is the strongest for the pitch equal to the colloidal diameter and decreases with increasing chirality. We show that the chirality of the medium is responsible for this oscillatory nature and screening of the colloidal interaction in the far and near field. The measurements are in agreement with numerical calculations using Landau-de Gennes theory.
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