Date of Award

5-2021

Document Type

Campus Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Physics, Applied

First Advisor

Mohamed A. Gharbi

Second Advisor

Chandra Yelleswarapu

Third Advisor

Jonathan Celli

Abstract

Liquid crystals have drawn interest in the past decade due to their ability to trap colloidal objects in topological defects and direct their assembly into specific patterns. Recently, R. Preusse, et. al. demonstrated the ability to assemble these defects into pre-defined patterns based on surface topography. Here, we expand on this work, dispersing gold nanoparticles into smectic liquid crystal and observing the structures formed. We demonstrate the ability to trap and spontaneously assemble these gold nanoparticles into the defect lines formed by the surface topography. In this way, we show that, by engineering precise surface topographies, we can direct the assembly of nanoparticles into complex structures using liquid crystals.

Comments

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