Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 7, 2026

Preparation of Liquid Crystal Networks for Macroscopic Oscillatory Motion Induced by Light
Published on: September 20, 2017
Motion of a colloidal particle in a nonuniform director field of a nematic liquid crystal
Beom-Kyu Lee1, Sung-Jo Kim1, Bohdan Lev1,2
1Department of Physics, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34134, Korea.
Abstract:
We investigate the dynamics of a single spherical particle immersed in a nematic liquid crystal. A nonuniform director field is imposed on the substrate by a stripe alignment pattern with splay deformation. The particle of homeotropic anchoring at the surface is accompanied by hyperbolic hedgehog or Saturn-ring defects. The particle motion is dependent on the defect structure. We study the two types of motions theoretically and confirm the obtained results experimentally. The particle accompanied by a hyperbolic hedgehog defect is pulled to a deformed region to relax the elastic deformation energy. The motion occurs in the direction heading the hyperbolic hedgehog defect of a particle in a twist region. The position exhibits a weak S-shaped change as a function of time. The particle accompanied by a Saturn-ring defect shows insignificant motion due to its relatively small deformation energy.
Related Concept Videos
Motion Of A Charged Particle In A Magnetic Field
The Colloidal State
Magnetic Field due to Moving Charges
Consider a point charge moving with a constant velocity. Like the electric field, the magnetic field at any point is directly proportional to the magnitude of the charge and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the source point and the field point. However, unlike the electric field, the magnetic field is always perpendicular to the plane containing the line...
The Fluid Mosaic Model
Colloids and Suspensions
Electric Field of a Non Uniformly Charged Sphere
Consider a non-uniformly charged sphere, for which the density of charge depends only on the distance from a point in space and not on the direction. Such a sphere has a spherically symmetrical charge distribution. Here, the electric...

