Search results for " mathematical & earth Sciences"

Depletion induced isotropic-isotropic phase separation in suspensions of rod-like colloids

2007

When non-adsorbing polymers are added to an isotropic suspension of rod-like colloids, the colloids effectively attract each other via depletion forces. We performed Monte Carlo simulations to study the phase diagram of such rod-polymer mixture. The colloidal rods were modeled as hard spherocylinders; the polymers were described as spheres of the same diameter as the rods. The polymers may overlap with no energy cost, while the overlap of polymers and rods is forbidden. Large amounts of depletant cause phase separation of the mixture. We estimated the phase boundaries of isotropic-isotropic coexistence both in the bulk and in confinement. To determine the phase boundaries we applied the gra…

Periodic unmixing of a binary metallic vapor

2005

We report on a type of surface structuring after short pulse laser ablation of a binary alloy. We observe the emergence of a concentric ring structure with changing elemental composition. The composition changes are interpreted by condensation of the ambient ablation vapor due to stress wave excitations in the ablation spot.

One-piece micropumps from liquid crystalline core-shell particles

2012

Responsive polymers are low-cost, light weight and flexible, and thus an attractive class of materials for the integration into micromechanical and lab-on-chip systems. Triggered by external stimuli, liquid crystalline elastomers are able to perform mechanical motion and can be utilized as microactuators. Here we present the fabrication of one-piece micropumps from liquid crystalline core-shell elastomer particles via a microfluidic double-emulsion process, the continuous nature of which enables a low-cost and rapid production. The liquid crystalline elastomer shell contains a liquid core, which is reversibly pumped into and out of the particle by actuation of the liquid crystalline shell i…

Phonons in single-layer and few-layer MoS2 and WS2

2011

We report ab initio calculations of the phonon dispersion relations of the single-layer and bulk dichalcogenides MoS2 and WS2. We explore in detail the behavior of the Raman-active modes A1g and E12g as a function of the number of layers. In agreement with recent Raman spectroscopy measurements [C. Lee et al., ACS Nano 4, 2695 (2010)], we find that the A1g mode increases in frequency with an increasing number of layers while the E12g mode decreases. We explain this decrease by an enhancement of the dielectric screening of the long-range Coulomb interaction between the effective charges with a growing number of layers. This decrease in the long-range part overcompensates for the increase of …

Solid-solid phase transition in hard ellipsoids

2009

We present a computer simulation study of the crystalline phases of hard ellipsoids of revolution. A previous study [P. Pfleiderer and T. Schilling, Phys. Rev. E 75, 020402 (2007)]. showed that for aspect ratios a/bor=3 the previously suggested stretched-fcc phase [D. Frenkel and B. Mulder, Mol. Phys. 55, 1171 (1985)] is unstable with respect to a simple monoclinic phase with two ellipsoids of different orientations per unit cell (SM2). In order to study the stability of these crystalline phases at different aspect ratios and as a function of density we have calculated their free energies by thermodynamic integration. The integration path was sampled by an expanded ensemble method in which …

Gravity-induced liquid crystal phase transitions of colloidal platelets.

2004

he influence of gravity on a suspension of sterically stabilized colloidal gibbsite platelets is studied. An initially isotropic-nematic biphasic sample of such a suspension develops a columnar phase on the bottom on prolonged standing. This phenomenon is described using a simple osmotic compression model. We performed Monte Carlo simulations of cut spheres with aspect ratio L/D = 1/15 and took data from the literature to supply the equations of state required for the model. We find that the model describes the observed three-phase equilibrium quite well.

Tuning the defect configurations in nematic and smectic liquid crystalline shells

2013

Thin liquid crystalline shells surrounding and surrounded by aqueous phases can be conveniently produced using a nested capillary microfluidic system, as was first demonstrated by Fernandez-Nieves et al. in 2007. By choosing particular combinations of stabilizers in the internal and external phases, different types of alignment, uniform or hybrid, can be ensured within the shell. Here, we investigate shells in the nematic and smectic phases under varying boundary conditions, focusing in particular on textural transformations during phase transitions, on the interaction between topological defects in the director field and inclusions in the liquid crystal (LC), and on the possibility to rel…

Late Frasnian Atrypida (Brachiopoda) from the Ardenne shelf (southern Belgium)

2004

Enhancing $l_i 3 l_j$ with the $Z^0$-penguin

2012

OMC: An Optical Monitoring Camera for INTEGRAL - Instrument description and performance

2003

The Optical Monitoring Camera (OMC) will observe the optical emission from the prime targets of the gammaray instruments onboard the ESA mission INTEGRAL, with the support of the JEM-X monitor in the X-ray domain. This capability will provide invaluable diagnostic information on the nature and the physics of the sources over a broad wavelength range. Its main scientific objectives are: ( 1) to monitor the optical emission from the sources observed by the gamma- and X-ray instruments, measuring the time and intensity structure of the optical emission for comparison with variability at high energies, and ( 2) to provide the brightness and position of the optical counterpart of any gamma- or X…