Network phase aqueous lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) are technologically useful materials with myriad applications in chemistry, biology, and materials science, which stem from their structurally periodic aqueous and hydrophobic nanodomains (∼0.7-5.0 nm in diameter) that are lined with well-defined chemical functionalities. The exclusive observation of bicontinuous cubic network phase LLCs (e...

We consider a spin model for applications to oil-water —amphiphilic-surfactant mixtures near the region where those phases coexist. We analyze this model assuming that oil and water molecules cannot be treated symmetrically, given that they do exhibit different chemical potentials. Using a mean-field approximation, we find that the modulated phase assumes two possible arrangements, such as shee...

Using a real space implementation of the self-consistent field theory for the polymeric system, we explore microphases of ABC linear triblock copolymers. For the sake of numerical tractability, the calculation is carried out in a two-dimensional (2D) space. Seven microphases are found to be stable for the ABC triblock copolymer in 2D, which include lamellae, hexagonal lattice, core-shell hexago...

The structure and dynamics of penta-hepta defects (PHD’s) in hexagonal patterns are studied in the framework of coupled amplitude equations for the underlying plane waves. An analytical solution for the phase field of moving PHD is found in the far field, which generalizes the static solution due to Pismen and Nepomnyashchy. The mobility tensor of the PHD is calculated using a combined analytic...

The hexagonal and cubic ions of dhcp Pr constitute two non-magnetic singlet-ground-state systems, which are coupled only weakly. However, the two-ion coupling between the hexagonal ions is just below the critical value at which an antiferromagnetic ordered phase becomes energetically favoured at low temperatures. This makes the system very sensitive to external influences (magnetic field, uniax...

The scattering of visible light by hexagonal-shaped column containing densely packed inclusions is simulated by a combination of ray-tracing and Monte Carlo techniques. While the ray tracing program takes care of the individual reflection and refraction events at the outer boundary of the particle, the Monte Carlo routine simulates internal scattering processes. A dense-medium light-scattering ...

Cytochrome oxidase from beef heart has been lipid-substituted with beef heart cardiolipin. The lipid phase behavior and protein aggregation state of the reconstituted complexes have been studied with 31P NMR, freeze-fracture electron microscopy, and saturation-transfer ESR of the spin-labeled protein. In the absence of salt, the lipid has a lamellar arrangement, and the protein is integrated an...

Infrared optical properties of mixed-phase thin films studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry using boron nitride as an example" (1997). We present a microstructure-dependent anisotropic infrared-optical dielectric function model for mixed-phase polycrystalline material from which we derive the transverse and longitudinal-optical modes observable in thin films. Infrared ellipsometry over the wave...

Nanoparticles often self-assemble into hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) structures although it is predicted to be less stable than face-centered-cubic (fcc) packing in hard-sphere models. In addition to close-packed fcc and hcp superlattices, we observe formation of nonclose-packed simple-hexagonal (sh) superlattices of nearly spherical PbS, PbSe, and gamma-Fe2O3 nanocrystals. This surprisingly ric...