Over the last half-century liquid crystals have become a ubiquitous part of daily life due to how they revolutionized the modern display industry. Most common liquid crystals are made of rod-like components (mesogens) that self-assemble, with the simplest liquid crystal phase, nematic, assembling its rod components to generate long-range orientational order. This in turn gives rise to anisotropic properties. For instance, their dielectric and optical anisotropy facilitates their reorientation with applied electric fields and subsequent alteration of light intensity – essential for making a pixel, amongst other liquid crystal technologies. Nematic ordering can occur across length scales from nanometric, molecular systems to centimeter-scale, rod-shaped wires. Indeed, although most people associate liquid crystals with displays, they are also pervasive in larger scaled, living systems. Liquid crystals can even be found within our bodies, such as in the organization of proteins and cells. Recent research aims to apply liquid crystal physics to active, biological systems, to better understand how anisotropy influences function. Yet, the tools developed for the display industry to structure liquid crystals remain to be leveraged for active liquid crystal systems. To advance our understanding of active liquid crystals, essential for elucidating biological processes, I will carry out this fellowship to develop a model liquid crystal system that can be structured through confinement, using techniques inspired by display technologies. My experimental system will probe the impact of geometry on liquid crystal alignment and dynamics. This project will be performed at Utrecht University (UU) under the supervision of Dr. Lisa Tran. The Tran group expertise includes control of molecular liquid crystals under varying geometrical confinement. The Tran group is embedded in the Soft Condensed Matter and Biophysics (SCMB) group and the Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, with expertise in nano/micro particle synthesis and high-resolution imaging techniques. Combined with my multi-disciplinary background in liquid crystal physics, chemistry, and engineering, I will innovate the geometrical alignment of passive and active liquid crystals beyond current state of the art.
