Nonreciprocal chirality conversion in spatiotemporal evolutions of nematic colloidal entanglement.

ABSTRACT: In soft matter systems, there is a wealth of topological phenomena, such as singular disclination lines and nonsingular defects of skyrmions and hopfions. In a liquid crystal (LC), the topological nature of disclination lines and colloids induces chiral colloidal entanglements. How the chirality of the entanglements is deterministically created and how the chirality conversion is actuated in the disclinations with Möbius strip topology have never been explored. Here, we create colloidal entanglements with designed chirality in the nematic disclination loops with Möbius topology. An irreversible process of chirality change is revealed if we move the colloidal entanglement along the loops. A nonreciprocal chirality conversion in the dynamical colloidal entanglements is demonstrated, which is

SUBMITTER: Zhang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11844734 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature