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Abstract:
Disclination lines in nematic liquid crystals can be used as ‘‘soft rails’’ for the transport of colloids or
droplets through microfluidic channels [A. Sengupta, C. Bahr and S. Herminghaus,
SoftMatter
, 2013,
9
,
7251]. In the present study we report on a method to connect and disconnect disclination lines in
microfluidic channels using the interplay between anchoring, flow, and electric field. We show that the
application of an electric field establishes a continuous disclination that spans across a channel region in
which a disclination usually would not exist (because of different anchoring conditions), demonstrating
an interruptible and reconnectable soft rail for colloidal transport.
