Self-Assembled Pseudo-Hexagonal Structures of Colloidal Particles at Air-Liquid Crystal Interface

We report self-assembled structures of colloidal particles at an air-nematic liquid crystal (LC) interface. On the homeotropically aligned LC layers, pseudo-hexagonal structures with long interparticle distances have been organized with the colloidal particles having strong normal surface anchoring. By localizing the particles at the air-LC interface, the self-assembly of the colloidal particles would be mainly driven by repulsive elastic interparticle force. In addition, an attractive lateral capillary force between the particles would also play an important role for the structure formation. The interparticle distance of the self-assembled structures was found to be tunable by changing the particle diameter. (C) 2009 The Japan Society of Applied Physics DOI: 10.1143/APEX.2.101501