Principles of thermal design with nematic liquid crystals

TL;DR

This paper explores how nematic liquid crystals can be engineered to control heat flow using topological structures, leveraging analog gravity models to achieve thermal concentration or expulsion.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using nematic liquid crystals and topological defects for thermal management based on analog gravity principles.

Findings

Nematic liquid crystals can be designed to manipulate heat flow.

Topological disclination-like structures enable thermal concentration or expulsion.

The approach is grounded in coordinate transformation and analog gravity models.

Abstract

Highly engineered materials are arousing great interest because of their ability to manipulate heat, as described by coordinate transformation approach. Based on the recently developed analog gravity models, this paper presents how a simple device based on nematic liquid crystal can achieve in principle either thermal concentration or expulsion. These outcomings are shown to stem from topological properties of a disclination-like structure, induced in the nematic by anchoring conditions.