Anand Yethiraj

TL;DR: This work presents a minimal two-component oil-in-oil model system where one can control the strength and lengthscale of the electrohydrodynamic interactions by tuning the amplitude and frequency of the imposed electric field, and observes a rich phenomenology of exotic structure and dynamics.

TL;DR: C cone-and-plate rheometry, (2)H NMR spectroscopy, and quadrupole echo decay observations have been used to obtain new insights into the dynamics of phases observed in bicellar DMPC/DHPC mixtures.

TL;DR: The NMR spectra of the three solutes ortho-, meta-, and para-dichlorobenzene in the nematic and smectic A phases of the liquid crystals 8CB and 8OCB are analyzed to yield two orientational order parameters for each solute.

TL;DR: It is shown that the NA transition in 4'-n-octyl-4-cyanobiphenyl (8CB) is clearly first order, contrary to calorimetric studies but in agreement with conclusions drawn from front-velocity measurements.

Abstract: Self organization of large-scale structures in nature - either coherent structures like crystals, or incoherent dynamic structures like clouds - is governed by long-range interactions. In many problems, hydrodynamics and electrostatics are the source of such long-range interactions. The tuning of electrostatic interactions has helped to elucidate when coherent crystalline structures or incoherent amorphous structures form in colloidal systems. However, there is little understanding of self organization in situations where both electrostatic and hydrodynamic interactions are present. We present a minimal two-component oil-in-oil model system where we can control the strength and lengthscale of the electrohydrodynamic interactions by tuning the amplitude and frequency of the imposed electric field. As a function of the hydrodynamic lengthscale, we observe a rich phenomenology of exotic structure and dynamics, from incoherent cloud-like structures and chaotic droplet dynamics, to polyhedral droplet phases, to coherent droplet arrays.