Elastic response of a nematic liquid crystal to an immersed nanowire

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a ferromagnetic nanowire immersed in a nematic liquid crystal responds elastically, using a novel lattice Boltzmann simulation method to measure the liquid crystal's elastic constants.

Contribution

It introduces a new algorithm for simulating moving boundaries in lattice Boltzmann models, enabling detailed study of nanowire-liquid crystal interactions.

Findings

The nematic exerts a torque on the nanowire proportional to the angle with the director.

Rotation of the nanowire allows measurement of the nematic's elastic constants.

The simulation captures the elastic response and torque behavior of the liquid crystal-nanowire system.

Abstract

We study the immersion of a ferromagnetic nanowire within a nematic liquid crystal using a lattice Boltzmann algorithm to solve the full three-dimensional equations of hydrodynamics. We present an algorithm for including a moving boundary, to simulate a nanowire, in a lattice Boltzmann simulation. The nematic imposes a torque on a wire that increases linearly with the angle between the wire and the equilibrium direction of the director field. By rotation of these nanowires, one can determine the elastic constants of the nematic.