Featured Liquid Crystal Picture Art of the Month

April 2024

©Ingo Dierking

Microcosm

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Description

Texture of a ferroelectric Smectic C* phase at zero Volt after electric field application with reforming helical superstructure. (The longer edge of the image is 700 micrometre in length). Cell thickness is 10 micrometre, temperature 97 degrees Celsius, between crossed polarisers. The image appears to resemble that of a desert-like agricultural area viewed from great height.

Author

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Ingo Dierking is heading the liquid crystal activities at the Department of Physics of the University of Manchester, UK. Over the years he has worked on various different aspects of liquid crystal research, such as chiral phases (cholesterics, ferroelectrics, Blue Phases), polymer stabilised LCs, growth and ordering phenomena, or topological defect annihilation. Our group is currently interested in liquid crystal refilled porous structures, solitons in liquid crystals, micro- and nanoparticle dispersions and machine learning techniques applied in liquid crystal research. We work on both thermotropic and lyotropic systems.

Web page: https://softmatter-dierking.myfreesites.net/
Email: ingo.dierking(at)manchester.ac.uk

Jury comment

The combination of vibrant summer colours and striking van Gogh style texture aesthetically portrays the beauty of the science of liquid crystals.
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