Liquid Crystal Laboratory

Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University

Alexander V. Emelyanenko

Head of Laboratory

Doctor of Science Habilitation, Professor of RAS

E-mail: emel@polly.phys.msu.ru

Scientific Interests: Liquid crystals, polymers, ferroelectric and antiferroelectric smectics, intermediate phases, cholesterics, composite materials, surface effects, phase transitions, unhomogeneous and polydisperse structures, materials for energy-saving displays, optical devices with memory effect, light modulators, molecular-statistical physics, computer simulations

IstinaResearcherID (IRID): 1117369

Anatoly S. Sonin

Professor, Doctor of Science Habilitation, Honored Worker of Science of Russia

Scientific Interests: Crystal optics, nonlinear optics of solid crystals, the electro-optics of solid and liquid crystals, thermal films on the basis of cholesteric liquid crystals and polymers, lyotropic and mineral liquid crystals, history of science

Anatoly V. Kaznacheev

Leading Research Associate, Doctor of Science Habilitation

E-mail: kazna@ineos.ac.ru

Scientific Interests: Continuum theory of liquid crystals (LC), interaction of LC with the boundaries, the influence of electric and magnetic fields on LC, LC electro-optics, lyotropic and mineral LC, the electro-optics of composite materials on the basis of polymers and LC.

Andrey V. Golovanov

Research Associate, PhD, Associate Professor

Scientific Interests: Magneto- and electro-optics, hydrodynamics of the lyotropic liquid crystals.

Vladimir Yu. Rudyak

Research Associate, PhD

E-mail: vurdizm@gmail.com

Scientific Interests: Polymers, liquid crystals, computer simulation, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, the coarse-grained simulation, the dissipative dynamics of particles, Monte Carlo, the mezoscopic methods.

Main publications:

1. Vladimir Yu Rudyak, Elizaveta A. Efimova, Daria V. Guseva, and Alexander V. Chertovich. Thermoset polymer matrix structure and properties: Coarse-grained simulations. Polymers, 11(1):36–1–36–12, 2019.
2. D. V. Guseva, V. Y. Rudyak, P. V. Komarov, A. V. Sulimov, B. A. Bulgakov, and A. V. Chertovich. Crosslinking mechanisms, structure and glass transition in phthalonitrile resins: Insight from computer multiscale simulations and experiments. Journal of Polymer Science, Part B: Polymer Physics, 58(5):362–374, 2018.
3. D. V. Guseva, V. Yu Rudyak, P. V. Komarov, B. A. Bulgakov, A. V. Babkin, and A. V. Chertovich. Dynamic and static mechanical properties of crosslinked polymer matrices: Multiscale simulations and experiments. Polymers, 10:792, 2018.
4. Kaznacheev Anatoly, Pozhidaev Evgeny, Rudyak Vladimir, Alexander V. Emelyanenko, and Khokhlov Alexei. Biaxial potential of surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystals. Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 97(4):042703, 2018.
5. Pavel V. Komarov, Daria V. Guseva, Vladimir Yu Rudyak, and Alexander V. Chertovich. Multiscale simulations approach: Crosslinked polymer matrices. Supercomputing Frontiers and Innovations, 5(3):55–59, 2018.
6. Sergey A. Shvetsov, Vladimir Yu Rudyak, Alexander V. Emelyanenko, Natalia I. Boiko, Zhang Yan-Song, Liu Jui-Hsiang, and Alexei R. Khokhlov. Photoinduced orientational structures of nematic liquid crystal droplets in contact with polyimide coated surface. Journal of Molecular Liquids, 2018.
7. Vladimir Yu Rudyak, Alexey A. Gavrilov, Elena Yu Kozhunova, and Alexander V. Chertovich. Shell–corona microgels from double interpenetrating networks. Soft Matter, 14:2777–2781, 2018.

IstinaResearcherID (IRID): 2652937

Sergey A. Shvetsov

Research Associate, PhD

E-mail: shvetsov(at)polly.phys.msu.ru

Scientific Interests: liquid crystals; nonlinear optics; defects; orientational transitions; light modulation; Dyes; azobenzene; liquid crystalline polymers; photosensitive systems

Main publications:

1. E.A. Babayan, I.A. Budagovsky, S.A. Shvetsov, M.P. Smayev, A.S. Zolot’ko, N.I. Boiko, and M.I. Barnik, "Light- and electric-field-induced first-order orientation transitions in a dendrimer-doped nematic liquid crystal", Phys. Rev. E, 82, no. 6, 061705 (2010).
2. I.A. Budagovsky, D.S. Pavlov, S.A. Shvetsov, M.P. Smayev, A.S. Zolot’ko, N.I. Boiko, M.I. Barnik, "First-order light-induced orientation transition in nematic liquid crystal in the presence of low-frequency electric field", Appl. Phys. Lett., 101, no. 2, 021112 (2012).
3. S.A. Shvetsov, A.V. Emelyanenko, N.I. Boiko, J.-H. Liu, and A.R. Khokhlov, "Orientational structure manipulation in nematic liquid crystal droplets induced by light excitation of azodendrimer dopant," J.Chem. Phys., 146, 211104 (2017). DOI: 10.1063/1.4984984
4. S.A. Shvetsov, A. V Emelyanenko, N.I. Boiko, A.S. Zolot’ko, Y.-S. Zhang, J.-H. Liu, A.R. Khokhlov, "Optical orientation of nematic liquid crystal droplets via photoisomerization of an azodendrimer dopant", Beilstein J. Nanotechnol., 9, pp. 870–879 (2018). doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.81
5. S.A. Shvetsov, A.V. Emelyanenko, M.A. Bugakov, N.I. Boiko, J.-H. Liu, “Photo-orientation at the interface between thermotropic nematic liquid crystal and water caused by azobenzene polymer additives”, Polym. Sci. Ser. C., 60, no. 1, 72-77 (2018). doi: 10.1134/S1811238218010071
6. S. Shvetsov, T. Orlova, A. V. Emelyanenko, A. Zolot’ko, Thermo-Optical Generation of Particle-Like Structures in Frustrated Chiral Nematic Film, Crystals. 9, 574 (2019). doi:10.3390/cryst9110574
7. S.A. Shvetsov, V.Yu. Rudyak, A.A. Gruzdenko, A. V. Emelyanenko, Axisymmetric skyrmion-like structures in spherical-cap droplets of chiral nematic liquid crystal, J. Mol. Liq. 319 (2020) 114149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2020.114149

ResearcherID: M-6238-2015

IstinaResearcherID (IRID): 60986699

Vadim A. Barbashov

Research Associate

E-mail: barbashov@polly.phys.msu.ru

Scientific Interests: Ferroelectric liquid crystals

Main publications:

1. E. P. Pozhidaev, S. I. Torgova, V. A. Barbashov, M. V. Minchenko, S. N. Sulyanov, P. V. Dorovatovskii, B. I. Ostrovskii, and A. Strigazzi. Ferroelectric c* phase induced in a nematic liquid crystal matrix by a chiral non-mesogenic dopant. Applied Physics Letters, 106(6), 2015.
2. E. P. Pozhidaev, V. V. Vashchenko, V. V. Mikhailenko, A. I. Krivoshey, V. A. Barbashov, L. Shi, A. K. Srivastava, V. G. Chigrinov, and H. S. Kwok. Ultrashort helix pitch antiferroelectric liquid crystals based on chiral esters of terphenyldicarboxylic acid. Journal of Materials Chemistry С, 4(43):10339–10346, 2016.
3. Evgeny Pozhidaev, Sofia Torgova, Vadim Barbashov, Vladimir Kesaev, Francesco Laviano, and Alfredo Strigazzi. Development of ferroelectric liquid crystals with low birefringence. Liquid Crystals, pages 1–11, 2018

Evgeniya S. Filimonova

Research Associate, PhD student

E-mail: filimonova@polly.phys.msu.ru

Investigation of polarization in the smectic liquid crystals by the methods of statistical physics. Usually in the theoretical works the value of spontaneous polarization is examined within the framework phenomenological theory, but the molecular aspects of the appearance of spontaneous polarization usually are not considered. In some publications, the appearance of spontaneous polarization was described at the molecular level, but the distribution of molecular dipoles was obtained as a result of expansion of polarization in Taylor series, and thus, the role of molecular theory was reduced to the determination of coefficients in the phenomenological theory. At the same time, for the simplest tilted smectic phases, synclinic and anticlinic, it is possible to find the distribution of molecular dipoles by the method, analogous to Mayer- Saupe theory. In our study, the origin of the spontaneous polarization in the synclinic and anticlinic smectic liquid crystals is obtained within the framework of molecular- statistical theory. The influence of interaction of molecules, external electric field and molecular bent on the value of polarization is studied.