Josep Salud

Bio: Josep Salud is an academic researcher from Polytechnic University of Catalonia. The author has contributed to research in topics: Liquid crystal & Phase transition. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 61 publications receiving 1667 citations.

Uniform thermodynamic description of the orientationally disordered mixed crystals of a group of neopentane derivatives

Abstract: The experimental systems considered in this paper are isobaric binary plastic-crystalline mixed crystals of neopentane derivatives, and their properties studied are (i) solid−liquid phase behavior and (ii) the thermodynamic mixing properties, actually the excess enthalpy, entropy, and volume. More in particular, 10 systems are considered, nine being face-centered cubic and one body-centered cubic, and their components are derived from neopentane, C(CH3)4, by substituting one or more −CH3 groups by one or more −CH2OH groups and/or one −NO2 or −NH2 groups. The (mean) number of −CH2OH groups per molecule appears to have a dominating influence with regard to melting temperature and degree of compactness. The values of the excess properties vary from system to system, whereas their quotients are system-independent. For the group of fcc systems, the quotient of excess enthalpy and excess entropy (compensation temperature) has the uniform value of 630 K, and the quotient of excess enthalpy and excess volume the ...

Thermodynamic and dielectric studies concerning the influence of cylindrical submicrometer confinement on heptyloxycyanobiphenyl.

Abstract: Measurements of the specific heat and the static dielectric permittivity of heptyloxycyanobiphenyl (7OCB) confined to the 0.2 microm diameter parallel cylindrical pores of Anopore membranes in the isotropic phase and nematic mesophase, are presented. A comparison between the bulk and the confined 7OCB in treated and untreated pore wall surfaces using a chemical surfactant (HTBA) is performed. Both the treated and untreated membrane confinements seem to affect the nematic-to-isotropic phase transition by a downshift in transition temperature and some rounding at the specific-heat maximum, in a way similar to that which was earlier published for other liquid crystals confined in the same geometry. The static dielectric measurements clearly point out that untreated membrane confinement is axial, with the nematic director aligned parallel to the pore axis being homeotropic bulklike, i.e., with the nematic director aligned perpendicular to the electrode cell surfaces. After chemical surfactant treatment, the nematic director is constrained in a radial alignment being perpendicular to the pore walls. The dielectric measurements are revealed to be specially sensible to analyze the surface-induced nematic order due to the pore wall. The tricritical nature of the nematic-to-isotropic phase transition in bulk 7OCB as well as in treated and untreated Anopore confined geometries is discussed through both the specific heat and the static dielectric data.

Liquid crystal binary mixtures of 8OCB + 10OCB. Evidence for a smectic A-to-nematic tricritical point.

Abstract: The two-component system octyloxycyanobiphenyl (8OCB) + decyloxycyanobiphenil (10OCB) has been studied by means of modulated differential scanning calorimetry as well as optical microscopy. The general trends of the phase diagram are similar to the two-component system octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB) + decylcyanobiphenil (10CB), previously published. Evidence for the existence of a TCP have been reported, the molar composition being about 0.33 of 10OCB. Additionally, the smectic mesophase of the 8OCB + 10OCB mixtures has been unmistakably characterized through optical measurements as smectic A for the whole composition range.

Dielectric relaxation in bulk and cylindrically confined octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB)

Abstract: The dielectric relaxation spectrum over the frequency range 102 to 1.8×109 Hz of 4‐octyl‐4′‐cyanobiphenyl, 8CB, in bulk and confined to 200 nm diameter cylindrical pores is reported. We used matrices with parallel cylindrical pores, obtaining different alignments of the molecular director depending on the treatment. Results show that there are two relaxations in the isotropic phase and in the mesophases for parallel alignment and three for perpendicular alignment. The molecular origin of theses modes and the effect of the confinement on their dynamics are discussed. To compare properly the results for bulk and confined 8CB, a re‐scaling of the experimental data is proposed.

Photonic crystals

Abstract: The term photonic crystals appears because of the analogy between electron waves in crystals and the light waves in artificial periodic dielectric structures. During the recent years the investigation of one-, two-and three-dimensional periodic structures has attracted a widespread attention of the world optics community because of great potentiality of such structures in advanced applied optical fields. The interest in periodic structures has been stimulated by the fast development of semiconductor technology that now allows the fabrication of artificial structures, whose period is comparable with the wavelength of light in the visible and infrared ranges.

The collected works

Abstract: This is a review of Collected Works of John Tate. Parts I, II, edited by Barry Mazur and Jean-Pierre Serre. American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island, 2016. For several decades it has been clear to the friends and colleagues of John Tate that a “Collected Works” was merited. The award of the Abel Prize to Tate in 2010 added impetus, and finally, in Tate’s ninety-second year we have these two magnificent volumes, edited by Barry Mazur and Jean-Pierre Serre. Beyond Tate’s published articles, they include five unpublished articles and a selection of his letters, most accompanied by Tate’s comments, and a collection of photographs of Tate. For an overview of Tate’s work, the editors refer the reader to [4]. Before discussing the volumes, I describe some of Tate’s work. 1. Hecke L-series and Tate’s thesis Like many budding number theorists, Tate’s favorite theorem when young was Gauss’s law of quadratic reciprocity. When he arrived at Princeton as a graduate student in 1946, he was fortunate to find there the person, Emil Artin, who had discovered the most general reciprocity law, so solving Hilbert’s ninth problem. By 1920, the German school of algebraic number theorists (Hilbert, Weber, . . .) together with its brilliant student Takagi had succeeded in classifying the abelian extensions of a number field K: to each group I of ideal classes in K, there is attached an extension L of K (the class field of I); the group I determines the arithmetic of the extension L/K, and the Galois group of L/K is isomorphic to I. Artin’s contribution was to prove (in 1927) that there is a natural isomorphism from I to the Galois group of L/K. When the base field contains an appropriate root of 1, Artin’s isomorphism gives a reciprocity law, and all possible reciprocity laws arise this way. In the 1930s, Chevalley reworked abelian class field theory. In particular, he replaced “ideals” with his “idèles” which greatly clarified the relation between the local and global aspects of the theory. For his thesis, Artin suggested that Tate do the same for Hecke L-series. When Hecke proved that the abelian L-functions of number fields (generalizations of Dirichlet’s L-functions) have an analytic continuation throughout the plane with a functional equation of the expected type, he saw that his methods applied even to a new kind of L-function, now named after him. Once Tate had developed his harmonic analysis of local fields and of the idèle group, he was able prove analytic continuation and functional equations for all the relevant L-series without Hecke’s complicated theta-formulas. Received by the editors September 5, 2016. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 01A75, 11-06, 14-06. c ©2017 American Mathematical Society

Light-Driven Liquid Crystalline Materials: From Photo-Induced Phase Transitions and Property Modulations to Applications.

Abstract: Light-driven phenomena both in living systems and nonliving materials have enabled truly fascinating and incredible dynamic architectures with terrific forms and functions. Recently, liquid crystalline materials endowed with photoresponsive capability have emerged as enticing systems. In this Review, we focus on the developments of light-driven liquid crystalline materials containing photochromic components over the past decade. Design and synthesis of photochromic liquid crystals (LCs), photoinduced phase transitions in LC, and photoalignment and photoorientation of LCs have been covered. Photomodulation of pitch, polarization, lattice constant and handedness inversion of chiral LCs is discussed. Light-driven phenomena and properties of liquid crystalline polymers, elastomers, and networks have also been analyzed. The applications of photoinduced phase transitions, photoalignment, photomodulation of chiral LCs, and photomobile polymers have been highlighted wherever appropriate. The combination of photoc...

Nematic twist-bend phase with nanoscale modulation of molecular orientation

Abstract: A state of matter in which molecules show a long-range orientational order and no positional order is called a nematic liquid crystal. The best known and most widely used (for example, in modern displays) is the uniaxial nematic, with the rod-like molecules aligned along a single axis, called the director. When the molecules are chiral, the director twists in space, drawing a right-angle helicoid and remaining perpendicular to the helix axis; the structure is called a chiral nematic. Here using transmission electron and optical microscopy, we experimentally demonstrate a new nematic order, formed by achiral molecules, in which the director follows an oblique helicoid, maintaining a constant oblique angle with the helix axis and experiencing twist and bend. The oblique helicoids have a nanoscale pitch. The new twist-bend nematic represents a structural link between the uniaxial nematic (no tilt) and a chiral nematic (helicoids with right-angle tilt).

Development of structural complexity by liquid-crystal self-assembly.

Abstract: Since the discovery of the liquid-crystalline state of matter 125 years ago, this field has developed into a scientific area with many facets. This Review presents recent developments in the molecular design and self-assembly of liquid crystals. The focus is on new exciting soft-matter structures distinct from the usually observed nematic, smectic, and columnar phases. These new structures have enhanced complexity, including multicompartment and cellular structures, periodic and quasiperiodic arrays of spheres, and new emergent properties, such as ferroelctricity and spontaneous achiral symmetry-breaking. Comparisons are made with developments in related fields, such as self-assembled monolayers, multiblock copolymers, and nanoparticle arrays. Measures of structural complexity used herein are the size of the lattice, the number of distinct compartments, the dimensionality, and the logic depth of the resulting supramolecular structures.