Electrically tunable collective motion of dissipative solitons in chiral nematic films.

ABSTRACT: From the motion of fish and birds, to migrating herds of ungulates, collective motion has attracted people for centuries. Active soft matter exhibits a plethora of emergent dynamic behaviors that mimic those of biological systems. Here we introduce an active system composed of dynamic dissipative solitons, i.e. directrons, which mimics the collective motion of living systems. Although the directrons are inanimate, artificial particle-like solitonic field configurations, they locally align their motions like their biological counterparts. Driven by external electric fields, hundreds of directrons are generated in a chiral nematic film. They start with random motions but self-organize into flocks and synchronize their motions. The directron flocks exhibit rich dynamic behaviors and induce po

SUBMITTER: Shen Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9018705 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature