Hidden topological constellations and polyvalent charges in chiral nematic droplets.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28220770.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms14594 and PMC identifier 5321799.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Topology has an increasingly important role in the physics of condensed matter, quantum systems, material science, photonics and biology, with spectacular realizations of topological concepts in liquid crystals. Here we report on long-lived hidden topological states in thermally quenched, chiral nematic droplets, formed from string-like, triangular and polyhedral constellations of monovalent and polyvalent singular point defects. These topological defects are regularly packed into a spherical liquid volume and stabilized by the elastic energy barrier due to the helical structure and confinement of the liquid crystal in the micro-sphere. We observe, for the first time, topological three-dimensional point defects of the quantized hedgehog charge q=-2, -3. These higher-charge defects act as ideal polyvalent artificial atoms, binding the defects into polyhedral constellations representing topological molecules.