Capillary condensation in liquid-crystal colloids.

Abstract

We study capillary condensation between two spherical particles dispersed in the isotropic phase of a nematic liquid crystal. Within the Landau-de Gennes theory, we calculate interaction energies due to the formation of capillary bridges that reproduce experimental observations. Close to the critical point of the transition line separating the no-bridge from the bridge configuration, fluctuations in the particle cluster might be described by an effective two-state system. We show that the transition line vanishes for small particles and that the shape of the interaction potential depends on particle size.