Zhang Jing, Tang Wentao, Asilehan Zhawure, Chen Zijun, Shi Qingtian, Vergara Fernando, Jiang Jinghua, Zhang Rui, Peng Chenhui
Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
Department of Physics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
Sci Adv. 2025 Feb 21;11(8):eads7281. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ads7281.
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 induced by the interplay between topological profiles and the geometrical curvature of the disclination loop. Colloidal entanglements in opposite chirality are templated in arbitrary shapes of disclination lines. This work opens opportunities to design smart colloidal materials.
在软物质系统中,存在着丰富的拓扑现象,如奇异的向错线以及斯格明子和霍普费子的非奇异缺陷。在液晶(LC)中,向错线和胶体的拓扑性质会引发手性胶体缠结。然而,这些缠结的手性是如何被确定性地创造出来的,以及在具有莫比乌斯带拓扑结构的向错中,手性转换是如何被触发的,这些问题从未被探索过。在这里,我们在具有莫比乌斯拓扑结构的向列相错环中创造出具有设计手性的胶体缠结。如果我们沿着环移动胶体缠结,就会揭示出手性变化的不可逆过程。我们证明了动态胶体缠结中的非互易手性转换,这是由拓扑轮廓与向错环的几何曲率之间的相互作用所诱导的。相反手性的胶体缠结被模板化为任意形状的向错线。这项工作为设计智能胶体材料提供了机会。