Dynamical States in Driven Colloidal Liquid Crystals

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nonequilibrium collective states of driven colloidal liquid crystals using Langevin dynamics, revealing how external rotating fields influence particle orientation and phase behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed dynamical state diagram for driven colloidal liquid crystals, linking external field parameters to collective states and single-particle dynamics.

Findings

Identification of various nonequilibrium states induced by external rotation

Construction of a dynamical state diagram based on frequency and packing fraction

Explanation of collective states through single-particle behavior

Abstract

We study a model colloidal liquid crystal consisting of hard spherocylinders under the influence of an external aligning potential by Langevin dynamics simulation. The external field that rotates in a plane acts on the orientation of the individual particles and induces a variety of collective nonequilibrium states. We characterize these states by the time-resolved orientational distribution of the particles and explain their origin using the single particle behavior. By varying the external driving frequency and the packing fraction of the spherocylinders we construct the dynamical state diagram.