Tailored nematic and magnetization profiles on two-dimensional polygons

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Han, Yucen and Harris, Joseph and Majumdar, Apala and Walton, Joshua (2021) Tailored nematic and magnetization profiles on two-dimensional polygons. Physical Review E, 103 (5). 052702. ISSN 2470-0053 (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.103.052702)

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Abstract

We study dilute suspensions of magnetic nanoparticles in a nematic host, on two-dimensional polygons. These systems are described by a nematic order parameter and a spontaneous magnetization, in the absence of any external fields. We study the stable states in terms of stable critical points of an appropriately defined free energy, with a nemato-magnetic coupling energy. We numerically study the interplay between the shape of the regular polygon, the size of the polygon, and the strength of the nemato-magnetic coupling for the multistability of this prototype system. Our notable results include (1) the coexistence of stable states with domain walls and stable interior and boundary defects, (2) the suppression of multistability for positive nemato-magnetic coupling, and (3) the enhancement of multistability for negative nemato-magnetic coupling.

ORCID iDs

Han, Yucen, Harris, Joseph, Majumdar, Apala ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4802-6720 and Walton, Joshua ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6279-928X;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)