Colloidal nanoparticles in liquid crystals : bulk properties, biaxiality and untwisting in cholesterics

Rajamanickam, Prabakaran and Almutari, Fatimah and Majumdar, Apala (2026) Colloidal nanoparticles in liquid crystals : bulk properties, biaxiality and untwisting in cholesterics. IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics. ISSN 1464-3634 (https://doi.org/10.1093/imamat/hxaf026)

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Abstract

We study the effects of colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) in liquid crystal samples in the dilute limit, in a Landau–de Gennes theoretical framework. The effects of the suspended NPs are captured by a homogenized energy, as outlined in [7]. For spatially homogeneous samples, we explicitly compute the critical points and minimizers of the modified Landau–de Gennes energy and show that the presence of NP eliminates the first-order isotropic-nematic phase transition, stabilises elusive biaxial phases over some temperature ranges and that the symmetry of the NP boundary conditions or surface treatments dictates the bulk equilibrium phase at high temperatures. We also numerically demonstrate structural transitions from twisted helical director profiles to untwisted director profiles in cholesteric-filled channel geometries, driven by the collective effects of the NPs and increasing temperature. These transitions are reversible upon lowering the temperature in sufficiently large domains, where thermal hysteresis can also be observed. This behaviour opens interesting avenues for tuning the optical properties of confined, nano-doped cholesteric systems.

ORCID iDs

Rajamanickam, Prabakaran ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1240-0362

Majumdar, Apala ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4802-6720

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• Item metadata

  Item type:	Article
  ID code:	95014
  Dates:	Date Event 6 January 2026 Published 6 January 2026 Published Online 7 December 2025 Accepted
  Subjects:	Science > Mathematics
  Department:	Faculty of Science > Mathematics and Statistics
  Depositing user:	Pure Administrator
  Date deposited:	12 Dec 2025 10:34
  Last modified:	07 Jan 2026 14:36
  URI:	https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/95014