Where surface physics and fluid dynamics meet: rupture of an amphiphile layer by fluid flow

We investigate the fluctuating pattern created by a jet of fluid impingent upon an amphiphile-covered surface. This microscopically thin layer is initially covered with 50 $\mu$m floating particles so that the layer can be visualized. A vertical jet of water located below the surface and directed upward drives a hole in this layer. The hole is particle-free and is surrounded by the particle-laden amphiphile region. The jet ruptures the amphiphile layer creating a particle-free region that is surrounded by the particle-covered surface. The aim of the experiment is to understand the (fluctuating) shape of the ramified interface between the particle-laden and particle-free regions.Comment: published in Journal of Chemical Physic

The Critical Behaviour of Potts models with symmetry breaking fields

The $Q$-state Potts model in two dimensions in the presence of external magnetic fields is studied. For general $Q\geq3$ special choices of these magnetic fields produce effective models with smaller $Z(Q')$ symmetry $(Q'< Q)$. The phase diagram of these models and their critical behaviour are explored by conventional finite-size scaling and conformal invariance. The possibility of multicritical behavior, for finite values of the symmetry breaking fields, in the cases where $Q>4$ is also analysed. Our results indicate that for effective models with $Z(Q')$ symmetry $(Q'\leq4)$ the multicritical point occurs at zero field. This last result is also corroborated by Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 15 pages (standart LaTex), 2 figure (PostScript) available by request to [email protected]

Boojums and the Shapes of Domains in Monolayer Films

Domains in Langmuir monolayers support a texture that is the two-dimensional version of the feature known as a boojum. Such a texture has a quantifiable effect on the shape of the domain with which it is associated. The most noticeable consequence is a cusp-like feature on the domain boundary. We report the results of an experimental and theoretical investigation of the shape of a domain in a Langmuir monolayer. A further aspect of the investigation is the study of the shape of a ``bubble'' of gas-like phase in such a monolayer. This structure supports a texture having the form of an inverse boojum. The distortion of a bubble resulting from this texture is also studied. The correspondence between theory and experiment, while not perfect, indicates that a qualitative understanding of the relationship between textures and domain shapes has been achieved.Comment: replaced with published version, 10 pages, 13 figures include

Hexatic Order and Surface Ripples in Spherical Geometries

In flat geometries, two dimensional hexatic order has only a minor effect on capillary waves on a liquid substrate and on undulation modes in lipid bilayers. However, extended bond orientational order alters the long wavelength spectrum of these ripples in spherical geometries. We calculate this frequency shift and suggest that it might be detectable in lipid bilayer vesicles, at the surface of liquid metals and in multielectron bubbles in liquid helium at low temperatures. Hexatic order also leads to a shift in the threshold for the fission instability induced in the later two systems by an excess of electric charge.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; revised version; to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Polar Smectic Films

We report on a new experimental procedure for forming and studying polar smectic liquid crystal films. A free standing smectic film is put in contact with a liquid drop, so that the film has one liquid crystal/liquid interface and one liquid crystal/air interface. This polar environment results in changes in the textures observed in the film, including a boojum texture and a previously unobserved spiral texture in which the winding direction of the spiral reverses at a finite radius from its center. Some aspects of these textures are explained by the presence of a Ksb term in the bulk elastic free energy density that favors a combination of splay and bend deformations.Comment: 4 pages, REVTeX, 3 figures, submitted to PR

Theory of monolayers with boundaries: Exact results and Perturbative analysis

Domains and bubbles in tilted phases of Langmuir monolayers contain a class of textures knows as boojums. The boundaries of such domains and bubbles may display either cusp-like features or indentations. We derive analytic expressions for the textures within domains and surrounding bubbles, and for the shapes of the boundaries of these regions. The derivation is perturbative in the deviation of the bounding curve from a circle. This method is not expected to be accurate when the boundary suffers large distortions, but it does provide important clues with regard to the influence of various energetic terms on the order-parameter texture and the shape of the domain or bubble bounding curve. We also look into the effects of thermal fluctuations, which include a sample-size-dependent effective line tension.Comment: replaced with published version, 21 pages, 16 figures include

Towards a Tetravalent Chemistry of Colloids

We propose coating spherical particles or droplets with anisotropic nano-sized objects to allow micron-scale colloids to link or functionalize with a four-fold valence, similar to the sp3 hybridized chemical bonds associated with, e.g., carbon, silicon and germanium. Candidates for such coatings include triblock copolymers, gemini lipids, metallic or semiconducting nanorods and conventional liquid crystal compounds. We estimate the size of the relevant nematic Frank constants, discuss how to obtain other valences and analyze the thermal distortions of ground state configurations of defects on the sphere.Comment: Replaced to improve figures. 4 figures Nano Letter

Avoided Critical Behavior in O(n) Systems

Long-range frustrating interactions, even if their strength is infinitesimal, can give rise to a dramatic proliferations of ground or near-ground states. As a consequence, the ordering temperature can exhibit a discontinuous drop as a function of the frustration. A simple model of the doped Mott insulator, where the short-range tendency of the holes to phase separate competes with long-range Coulomb effects, exhibits this "avoided critical" behavior. This model may serve as a paradigm for many other systems.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Interface dynamics for layered structures

We investigate dynamics of large scale and slow deformations of layered structures. Starting from the respective model equations for a non-conserved system, a conserved system and a binary fluid, we derive the interface equations which are a coupled set of equations for deformations of the boundaries of each domain. A further reduction of the degrees of freedom is possible for a non-conserved system such that internal motion of each domain is adiabatically eliminated. The resulting equation of motion contains only the displacement of the center of gravity of domains, which is equivalent to the phase variable of a periodic structure. Thus our formulation automatically includes the phase dynamics of layered structures. In a conserved system and a binary fluid, however, the internal motion of domains turns out to be a slow variable in the long wavelength limit because of concentration conservation. Therefore a reduced description only involving the phase variable is not generally justified.Comment: 16 pages; Latex; revtex aps; one figure. Revision: screened coulomb interaction with coulomb limi