应用于低折射率样品检测的SERS活性液芯光纤

用纳米组装方法在空心光纤内壁修饰SERS活性基底构成内壁具有表面增强拉曼光谱活性层的液芯光纤。激发光由光纤壁横截面入射,并在光纤壁中传播。由于光纤壁的折射率大于检测样品溶液的折射率,使得激发光在光纤壁中发生全反射,并在消逝场下穿透修饰层,激发样品拉曼散射。本方法融合了表面增强拉曼光谱技术与液芯光纤技术的优势,可成为应用于低折射样品溶液体系检测的又一手段。     

The principle of non-mechanical transport of a liquid crystal in thin capillaries

The non-mechanical principle of transport of a liquid crystal (LC) encapsulated in a narrow cavity between two coaxially arranged cylinders is introduced based on the interaction of the temperature and director field gradients. The temperature gradient is created due to a heat flow from the inner cylinder surface, whereas the temperature on the outer cylinder surface is maintained constant. The director field gradient is caused by the deformation of the planar-oriented LC cavity upon exposure to a double electrostatic layer, which naturally appears at the LC phase-solid interface. The size of the gap between the bounding surfaces, cylinder curvatures, and thermal conditions are determined, which allow initiation of the LC phase flow in the horizontal direction.     

Mechanism for the Correlated Swinging of Photoluminescence Intensity and Peak Energy Shift with Sizes of Nanoscale Si Particles

Based on the quantum confinement-luminescence center model, we focus on the relationship between the photoluminescence (PL) spectra and sizes of nanoscale silicon particles.We find that when there are two kinds of luminescence centers (LC) in the oxide layer surrounding the silicon particles, both the integrated PL intensity and the spectral peak position swing with reducing the sizes of silicon particles, which is different from the monotonous blueshift of peak position predicted by quantum confinement model. By changing the concentrations of LC we find the correlation between the spectral peak position and the integrated PL intensity when the size of silicon particles is reduced. The effects of other parameters such as the half width of size distribution and the position of photon emission levels of LC are also found to be important.     

Liquid crystal alignment by rubbed polymer surfaces: a microscopic bond orientation model

We discuss the microscopic origin of a previously poorly understood phenomenon, the alignment of a nematic liquid crystal (LC), consisting of rod-like molecular units, when placed on a rubbed polymer surface. After giving a brief review of the phenomenon and its technological utilization in flat panel displays we discuss the use of surface sensitive, polarization dependent near edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy for the study of rubbed polymer surfaces. These measurements are shown to provide a microscopic picture for the origin of the alignment process. It is shown that the LC orientation direction is set by an asymmetry in the molecular bonds, i.e. of the charge, at the rubbed polymer surface. The experimental results are explained by a general theory, based on tensor order parameters, which states that the minimum energy state of the interaction between the LC and oriented polymer surface corresponds to maximum directional overlap of the respective anisotropic charge distributions.     

Observation of Undamped 3D Brownian Motion of Nanoparticles Using Liquid-Cell Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy

In theory, liquid-cell (scanning) transmission electron microscopy (LC(S)TEM) is the ideal method to measure 3D diffusion of nanoparticles (NPs) on a single particle level, beyond the capabilities of optical methods. However, particle diffusion experiments have been especially hard to explain in LC(S)TEM as the observed motion thus far has been slower than theoretical predictions by 3–8 orders of magnitude due to electron beam effects. Here, direct experimental evidence of undamped diffusion for two systems is shown; charge-neutral 77 nm gold nanoparticles in glycerol and negatively charged 350 nm titania particles in glycerol carbonate. The high viscosities of the used media and a low electron dose rate allow observation of Brownian motion that is not significantly altered by the electron beam. The resulting diffusion coefficient agrees excellently with a theoretical value assuming free diffusion. It is confirmed that the particles are also moving in the direction parallel to the electron beam by simulating STEM images using Monte Carlo simulations. Simulations and experiments show blurring of the particles when these move out of focus. These results make clear that direct observation of 3D diffusion of NPs is possible, which is of critical importance for the study of interparticle interactions or in situ colloidal self-assembly using LC(S)TEM.     

Orientational Instability and Hysteresis Phenomena in a Ferronematic Liquid Crystal in a Magnetic Field

A magnetic-field-induced orientational structure in a ferronematic (FN) liquid crystal (LC) layer is studied within the continuum theory. The rotation angles of the director and the magnetization and the concentration of magnetic impurity corresponding to a supertwisted orientational structure of the suspension are calculated. It is shown that the deviation angle of the director from the direction of the external field has the hysteresis region in which the orientational structure of the FN changes stepwise from a state with a positive twist of the director to a state with a negative twist. A value of the magnetic field strength is found above which orientational bistability regions arise. It is shown that orientational instability under the rotation of the field most clearly manifests itself in FNs with strong anchoring of particles to the LC matrix. It is established that the effect of magnetic segregation responsible for the redistribution of magnetic particles in the layer leads to the expansion of the hysteresis region and to a decrease in the field at which orientational instability arises. It is shown that, in FNs with soft anchoring between magnetic and LC subsystems, there exist several response modes to a quasistatic rotation of the magnetic field.     

Orientation of discotic and ferroelectric liquid crystals in a macroporous silicon matrix

Macroporous silicon with deep regular channels 3–4.5 μm in diameter was infiltrated with discotic and ferroelectric liquid crystals (LCs) at the temperature of the isotropic phase, and then, the system was slowly cooled to room temperature, with the liquid crystalline mesophase formed. The orientation of the LC molecules in the porous matrix was studied by FTIR spectroscopy. The alignment of LCs was ascertained by comparing the behavior of various vibrational bands of a liquid crystal introduced into the porous matrix with that for LC inside the bulk cells of planar and homeotropic alignment. The molecules of the discotic LC show a planar orientation of their column’s axis with respect to the surface of the macroporous silicon wafer; i.e., they are perpendicular to the channel axis. The long molecular axis of the ferroelectric LC is aligned with the pore walls, having homeotropic orientation with respect to the wafer surface. In a macroporous silicon matrix, both kinds of LCs show unexpected enhancement of the low-frequency vibrational bands. From Fizika Tverdogo Tela, Vol. 44, No. 6, 2002, pp. 1145–1150. Original English Text Copyright ? 2002 by Perova, Astrova, Tsvetkov, Tkachenko, Vij, Kumar. This article was submitted by the authors in English.     

Biophysical characteristics of cells cultured on cholesteryl ester liquid crystals

This study aimed at examining the biophysical characteristics of human derived keratinocytes (HaCaT) cultured on cholesteryl ester liquid crystals (CELC). CELC was previously shown to improve sensitivity in sensing cell contractions. Characteristics of the cell integrin expressions and presence of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins on the liquid crystals were interrogated using various immunocytochemical techniques. The investigation was followed by characterization of the chemical properties of the liquid crystals (LC) after immersion in cell culture media using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The surface morphology of cells adhered to the LC was studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Consistent with the expressions of the integrins α2, α3 and β1, extracellular matrix proteins (laminin, collagen type IV and fibronectin) were found secreted by the HaCaT onto CELC and these proteins were also secreted by cells cultured on the glass substrates. FTIR analysis of the LC revealed the existence of spectrum assigned to cholesterol and ester moieties that are essential compounds for the metabolizing activities of keratinocytes. The immunostainings indicated that cell adhesion on the LC is mediated by self-secreted ECM proteins. As revealed by the AFM imaging, the constraint in cell membrane spread on the LC leads to the increase in cell surface roughness and thickness of cell membrane. The biophysical expressions of cells on biocompatible CELC suggested that CELC could be a new class of biological relevant material.     

Study of Friction between Liquid Crystals and Crystalline Surfaces by Molecular Dynamic Simulations

The lubrication characteristics of liquid crystal (LC) molecules sheared between two crystalline surfaces obtained from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are reported in this article. We consider a coarse-grained rigid bead-necklace model of the LC molecules confined between two atomic surfaces subject to different shearing velocities. A systematic study shows that the slip length of LC lubrication changes significantly as a function of the LC-surface interaction energy, which can be well described though a theoretical curve. The slip length increases as shear rate increases at high LC-surface interaction energy. However, this trend can not be observed for low interaction energy. The orientation of the LC molecules near the surface is found to be guided by the atomics surfaces. The influence of temperature on the lubrication characteristics is also discussed in this article.     

Near-Field Birefringence Response of Liquid Crystal Molecules in Thickness Direction of Liquid Crystal Thin Film Orientated by Shear Force

Information of molecular orientation in nematic liquid crystal （LC） is attractive and important for applications in the field of display devices. We demonstrate a novel method using a birefringence scanning near-field optical microscope （Bi-SNOM） with a probe which is inserted into the LC thin film to detect the molecular orientation from its birefringence responses in the thickness direction of the LC thin film. The probe is laterally vibrated when going forward into the LC thin film, and the retardation and azimuth angle are recorded as the probe going down. Firstly, the thickness of the LC thin film is measured by the shear force detection. Since the shear force acts as a stimulation to reorientate the LC molecules above the substrate surface, we can detect the molecular orientation caused by a polyimide alignment substrate and the effect to molecular orientation caused by vibration of fibre probe. As a result, the orientation profiling of the LC film in depth direction is obtained in both the cases that the direction of probe vibrating is vertical/parallel to the rubbing direction of the alignment film. Furthermore, the thickness of completely orientated layers just above the substrate surface can also be obtained by either vibrating probe or no-vibrating probe. Ultimately, the LC thin film can be modelled in thickness direction from all the results using this method.     

Electro‐optic switching with liquid crystal graphene

Graphene oxide (GO) particles in aqueous dispersions can form liquid crystal (LC) phases at extremely low concentrations due to the extremely high aspect ratio of the flakes and noticeably, they possess an extremely large Kerr coefficient attractive for low power consumption electro‐optic devices. Reduced graphene does not easily form LC phases in water due to its hydrophobic nature but here we show that stable dispersions of reduced graphene oxide can be realized with surfactants and that they exhibit birefringence upon shearing as well as under application of electric fields. The performance of the system is largely superior to GO LC possessing longer time stability and drastically improved electro‐optic properties with an induced birefringence twice as large at the same field strength thanks to the almost recovery of graphene properties upon reduction. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

New regions of diffraction reflection in apodized one-dimensional photonic crystals with a large modulation depth

The specific features of light transmission in a cholesteric liquid crystal (LC) cell with a director rotated by 90° have been investigated. In this structure, where a light wave is incident at a large angle with respect to the LC surface, the light is reflected (refracted) in the LC layer near the opposite boundary. It is shown that the application of an electric field changes the character of extraordinary wave refraction, as a result of which light starts passing through a cell. The transmission threshold voltage is determined, and its dependence on the angle of incidence of light is obtained. The dependence of the transmitted-light intensity on the voltage across the cell is obtained as well. The same dependences are also derived by numerical calculations with allowance for the turning points and extinction.     

变温红外光谱研究表面双稳态液晶分子的相变过程

运用变温红外和样本-样本相关光谱对40～150 ℃温度区间内的表面双稳态液晶分子MHOCPOOB的相变过程中的分子构象、排布及相互作用的变化进行研究。结果表明：室温时,分子烷基链中同时存在Zigzag和Gauche两种构象。随温度升高,其中有序的Zigzag构象转化为无序的Gauche 构象,链的扭曲程度增加。刚性核部分,羰基与相邻的苯环形成共轭体系,苯环之间相互倾斜排列,在相变过程中羰基与苯环的共平面作用逐渐被打破,且在相变点苯环间的二面角明显增大。由于表面稳定化的作用,使得在液晶盒表面上的一层膜,其结构并不随温度、相结构的变化而变化,因而在液晶盒的光谱中观察到的相变点较少。通过二维光谱作者发现,在122 ℃时分子出现细微结构调整。     

Theoretical research on the random lasing from two-dimensional anisotropic media consisted of liquid crystal and mixed dye

The random lasing action in two-dimensional random media is investigated by simultaneously solving Maxwell’s equations and rate equations of electronic population. The random media are composed of scattering liquid crystal (LC) particles and mixed dye materials. The anisotropic scattering LC particles are arranged to be disordered in the spatial orientation of their optical axes. A parameter K = n _o /n _e ≤ 1 which denotes the ratio of the refractive indexes at two principal axes is defined to characterize the degree of the orientational disorder. The number of the lasing modes increases quickly with the decreasing of ratio K. In addition, the simulation of the external modulation of dielectric constant is studied. Results indicate that the spectrum intensity would be enhanced; whilst the frequencies of the lasing modes do not change significantly.     

Effect of clay surface modification on the structure and electro-optical properties of liquid crystal/clay nanocomposites

FTIR spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and electro-optical measurements were used to study nanocomposites consisting of nematic liquid crystal (LC) ZLI-2293 and organophilic montmorillonite (MMT) nanoparticles. The initial MMT was modified by two different surfactants: octadecylbenzyldimethylammonium chloride (OBDM) and dioctadecylldimethylammonium chloride (DODM). According to spectroscopic results, Van der Waals interactions between the components of the LC/clay composites are stronger in OBDM-MMT case. AFM images of two types of the LC/clay nanocomposites showed different morphology consisting of large-scale structures. Correlation between the spectroscopic results and electro-optical behaviour of the LC/clay nanocomposites was observed. It was inferred that the memory effect is more pronounced for composites with OBDM-MMT due to colloid network formation, whereas the electro-optical contrast is higher for DODM-MMT, where the clay particles are not organized in any ordered structure.     

Brownian dynamics simulation of monolayer formation by deposition of colloidal particles: A kinetic study at high bulk particle concentration

Brownian dynamics simulations (BDS) of sedimentation and irreversible adsorption of colloidal particles on a planar surface were carried out at bulk particle volume fractions (φ) in the range 0.05 to 0.25. The sedimentation and adsorption of colloidal particles were simulated as a non-sequential process that allows simultaneous settling and adsorption of particles. A kinetic model for the formation of particle monolayers based on the available surface fraction (θ ( A )) is proposed to predict simulation results. The simulations show a value of 0.625 for the maximum fractional surface coverage (θ (∞)) and a monolayer structure insensitive to φ. However, the kinetic order of the monolayer formation process has a strong dependence with φ, changing from a value close to a unit, at low φ, to a value around two at high φ. This change in the kinetic reaction order is associated to differences of particle adsorption mechanism on the surface. At low φ values, the monolayer formation is achieved by independent adsorption of single particles and the reaction order is close to 1. At high φ values, the simultaneous adsorption of two particles on the surface leads to an increase of the reaction order to values close to 2.     

Resolution improvement of surface plasmon-enhanced, liquid crystal spatial light modulator: Simulation studies

Spatial resolution is an important performance characteristic of spatial light modulators (SLM). One of the key factors affecting the spatial resolution of liquid crystal (LC)-based SLM is the fringing field effect. This effect can be reduced in thin LC cells with corresponding reduction in the electro-optical response. A strong electro-optic response in thin LC layer can be attained using the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) phenomenon. While SPR-based LC SLMs were already demonstrated about 15 years ago, their development has been hampered in part by low resolution, due to the finite propagation length of the surface plasmons (SPs). A fine patterning of the metal layer supporting the propagation of SPs is studied as a possible solution for reducing the spatial blurring associated with the long propagation length of SPs. The results of detailed computer simulations showing improved resolution SPR-LC-SLM are presented.     

Combined laser calorimetry and surface thermal lens technique for optical coating characterization

A combined laser calorimetry (LC) and surface thermal lens (STL) technique with a continuous-wave (cw) modulated excitation is developed for characterizing the absorption properties of optical coatings. LC and STL signals are simultaneously obtained with highly reflective coating samples irradiated at 1064 nm. With a modulated irradiation power of 2.6 W, the limits of absorptance detection for the LC and STL signals are approximately 1.2×10^-6 and 0.5×10^-6, respectively. The influences of different excitation parameters (modulation frequency, excitation-beam power and irradiation time) on the absorptance measurements are experimentally analyzed. The applicability of the combined LC and STL technique to the investigation of the laser-induced absorption changes of optical coatings in an absolute absorptance scale is demonstrated. PACS 42.87.-d; 78.20.-e     

Entropy-driven aggregation of adhesion sites of supported membranes

A large number of interesting phenomena related to the insertion of colloidal particles in liquid crystals (LC) have recently been reported. Here, we investigate effects caused by the addition of spherically shaped ferroelectric nanoparticles to a nematic liquid crystal. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, the density of LC molecules, the orientational order parameter, and the polar and azimuthal angle profiles are calculated as functions of the distance to the center of the immersed nanoparticle for different temperatures of the system. We observe that the assembly of ferroelectric nanoparticles enhances the nematic order in the LC medium changing many properties of its host above the nematic-isotropic transition temperature T ^* _NI .     

Hydrodynamic Flows in Microsized Liquid Crystal Cells with Orientational Defects

The effect of the orientational defect (OD) on the formation process of a vortical flow v(t, r), emerging in a microsized liquid crystal (LC) cell under the action of a focused laser radiation, was studied within the nonlinear generalization of the classical Ericksen–Leslie theory by numerical methods, considering the thermomechanical contributions to both the stress tensor and viscous torque, that acts on the unit volume of the liquid crystal phase (LC phase). The analysis of the obtained results showed that the vortical flow, rotating clockwise, is generated in a “defect” LC cell close to the OD, with the OD, placed on the lower bounding surface, on which the laser radiation was focused. The rotational velocity of this flow is two orders of magnitude greater than the rotational velocity of the vortex, which is generated in a “pure” LC cell at the same conditions and rotates anticlockwise.