Droplet relaxation in Hele-Shaw geometry: Application to the measurement of the nematic-isotropic surface tension

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2015 Dec;92(6):062512. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.92.062512. Epub 2015 Dec 22.

Abstract

Shape measurements after the coalescence of isotropic droplets embedded in a thin sample of a homeotropic nematic phase provides a tool to measure the nematic-isotropic surface tension. In addition, this experiment allows us to check the scaling laws recently given by Brun et al. [P.-T. Brun, M. Nagel, and F. Gallaire, Phys. Rev. E 88, 043009 (2013)] to explain the relaxation of ellipsoidal droplets in a Hele-Shaw cell.