Shivaraja S J, featured ILCS liquid crystal artist, August 2023

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Shivaraja S J completed his PhD from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani), Pilani Campus, India under the supervision of Prof. Manjuladevi V.
He mainly works in experimental soft matter physics, especially nanocomposites of liquid crystals for display and switchable smart window applications. His PhD thesis work mainly focussed on studying the effect of functionalized nanomaterials on switching properties of nematic liquid crystals.
Currently, he works as an IOE-Post doctoral research fellow at School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India, under the guidance of Prof. Surajit Dhara.

Contact Details:
Email: shivarajk90(at)gmail.com
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shivaraja-S-J
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivaraja-sj-16ab1b68/
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UL11cLoAAAAJ&hl=en
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As we are aware, liquid crystals are useful in wide range of device applications, they also show mesmerizing optical textures. Here, we present the beautiful, and colourful texture of the hexagonal columnar phase of discotic liquid crystal (2,3,6,7,10,11-hexabutoxytriphenylene (HAT4)) observed under crossed polarizers. The texture was captured in the cooling cycle, using a polarizing optical microscope (Olympus BX53M) by sandwiching liquid crystal sample between two homeotropically aligned glass plates. The thickness of the cell used is 10μm. The image is captured at 140°C, slightly below the isotropic to columnar phase transition. The image depicts vibrant leaf-like structures against a black background. This work is carried out in collaboration with Prof. Sandeep Kumar, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India.
Jury comment: The photo shows once again how liquid crystals combine science and artistic aspects, so the picture is very attractive from an aesthetic and artistic point of view.