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W. G. Pritchard Lab Seminar: 4:00-5:00 PM, 320 Whitmore Laboratory

	            **Tuesday September 28, 2004**
	
Anisotropic particles in anisotropic fluids

Robert Leheny

Department of Physics & Astronomy
Johns Hopkins University
 

Abstract:

Nematic liquid crystals, fluids comprised of rod-like molecules, are
characterized by an alignment of the long axes of the molecules along a
particular direction.  Particles suspended in nematic fluids introduce
distortions in this alignment with a corresponding cost in elastic energy,
and the tendency to minimize this energy leads to forces on the particles.
This talk will describe experiments to measure such forces on highly
anisotropic, wire-shaped particles and to control these forces in order to
manipulate the particles.

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