Patrick Research Group - Liquid Crystal Research

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Home Research Liquid crystals Nanomaterials Thin Films Organic electronics Theory & simulation Instrumentation People Current members Hall of fame Awards Photo Album Environs Lab tour City of Bellingham Directions & map Other stuff Publications News stories Getting involved liquid crystal nanomaterial STM scanning tunneling microscopy AFM atomic force microscopy nanoparticle organize order disorder ordered nematic smectic magnetic field electric field organic semiconductor carbon nanotube optical microscopy surface science materials science university research chemistry physics physical chemistry mesogen phase transition publication simulation molecular nano nanometer nanoscience nanomaterial nanotechnology technology patent scanning probe microscopy rhk multimode spm atomic resolution nanometer scale oriented film monolayer David L Patrick David Patrick Dr. Patrick WWU Washington		Liquid crystal research. Liquid crystals play an important role in most of our research. They are studied both in their own right, as interesting and useful materials, and also as solvents, where we employ them in the preparation of thin films and nanostructured materials. Liquid crystals are familiar to most people from liquid crystal displays, but they are used in a variety of other optoelectronic applications as well. Like conventional liquids, they flow and can be mixed with other materials, but unlike conventional liquids, which are isotropic, the molecules comprising a liquid crystal have orientational and/or positional order. It is this order that gives them their special properties. We work primarily with nematic and smectic-A thermotropic liquid crystals, which have the structures illustrated to the right. Our primary interest is in the interfacial properties of liquid crystals - i.e. how they interact with surfaces. Molecular order in a liquid crystal is very sensitive to boundary effects, which has important consequences for most applications. Our research in this area is aimed at developing a better understanding of how liquid crystals are ordered at and near surfaces. To do so, we combine scanning tunneling microscopy (STM, which gives information about molecular order at conductive surface) with polarizing optical microscopy (which gives information about order in a bulk fluid). References Controlled symmetry breaking to grow chiral films from achiral molecules, A. Berg, D. L. Patrick, Angew. Chemie Int. Ed. 43, 1744 (2005). preprint (PDF) Controlling Molecular Alignment in an Organic Monolayer with a Sacrificial Liquid Crystal Template, S. Hickman, A. Hamilton, D. L. Patrick, Surface Science, 537, 113 (2003). PDF Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Interfacial Fluids of Achiral Molecules, P. Kohl, D. L. Patrick, J. Phys. Chem. B. 105, 8203 (2001). PDF Formation of Uniaxial Molecular Films by Liquid Crystal Imprinting in a Magnetic Field, J. D. Mougous, A. J. Brackley, K. Foland, R. T. Baker, D. L. Patrick Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2742 (2000). Phys. Rev. Focus news story PDF	Liquid crystal phases. LCs can be beautiful. A monolayer of the LC 8CB on graphite.