Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 27, 2026

Facet-to-facet Linking of Shape-anisotropic Colloidal Cadmium Chalcogenide Nanostructures
Published on: August 10, 2017
Self-assembly of skyrmion-dressed chiral nematic colloids with tangential anchoring
M B Pandey1, T Porenta2, J Brewer3
1Department of Physics and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA and Department of Physics, VSSD College, Kanpur 208 002, India.
Abstract:
We describe dipolar nematic colloids comprising mutually bound solid microspheres, three-dimensional skyrmions, and point defects in a molecular alignment field of chiral nematic liquid crystals. Nonlinear optical imaging and numerical modeling based on minimization of Landau-de Gennes free energy reveal that the particle-induced skyrmions resemble torons and hopfions, while matching surface boundary conditions at the interfaces of liquid crystal and colloidal spheres. Laser tweezers and videomicroscopy reveal that the skyrmion-colloidal hybrids exhibit purely repulsive elastic pair interactions in the case of parallel dipoles and an unexpected reversal of interaction forces from repulsive to attractive as the center-to-center distance decreases for antiparallel dipoles. The ensuing elastic self-assembly gives rise to colloidal chains of antiparallel dipoles with particles entangled by skyrmions.
Related Concept Videos
Attachment of Sister Chromatids
Formation of Intermediate Filaments
Spindle Assembly
In most cells, centrosomes are the primary microtubule nucleation centers. In the centrosome-mediated pathway, the G2-prophase transition triggers centrosome maturation and increased microtubule nucleation. Progressive nucleation results in a...
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
The Colloidal State
Micelles

