Coarsening Dynamics of Inclusions and Thermocapillary Phenomena in Smectic Liquid Crystal Bubbles

ORAL

Abstract

The Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands in Space (OASIS) project comprises a series of experiments that probe interfacial and hydrodynamic behavior of thin spherical-bubbles of smectic liquid crystal in microgravity. Smectic films are the thinnest known stable condensed phase structures, making them ideal for studies of two-dimensional (2D) coarsening dynamics and thermocapillary phenomena in microgravity. The OASIS flight hardware was launched on SpaceX-6 in April 2015 and experiments were carried out on the International Space Station using four different smectic A and C liquid crystal materials in separate sample chambers. We will describe the behavior of collective island dynamics on the bubbles, including temperature gradient-induced themomigration, and the diffusion and coalescence-driven coarsening dynamics of island emulsions in microgravity. This work was supported by NASA Grant No. NNX-13AQ81G, and NSF MRSEC Grants No. DMR-0820579 and DMR-1420736.

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Authors

  • Cheol Park

    • University of Colorado

  • Joseph Maclennan

    • University of Colorado

  • Matthew Glaser

    • University of Colorado

  • Noel Clark

    • University of Colorado
    • Department of Physics, University of Colorado at Boulder

  • Torsten Trittel

    • University of Magdeburg

  • Alexey Eremin

    • University of Magdeburg

  • Ralf Stannarius

    • University of Magdeburg
    • Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg

  • Padetha Tin

    • NASA Glenn Research Center

  • Nancy Hall

    • NASA Glenn Research Center