From optical to topological data analysis of colloidal and structured liquid crystals
Malgosia Kaczmarek, Ingrid Amaranta Membrillo Solis, Tetiana N. Orlova, Karolina Bednarska, Piotr Lesiak, Tomasz R. Woliński, Giampaolo D’Alessandro, Jacek Brodzki · 2021
Colloidal liquid crystals offer a route to change physical properties and create micro and nano structures. Optical methods only characterise relatively simple colloidal systems. More complex systems require powerful data analytic methods. We present a new approach using Topological Data Analysis to reveal the structural and morphological features in a nematic liquid crystal doped with gold nanoparticles confined in a thin capillary, including the changes occurring during phase transitions. Our topological framework allows us to identify distinct temperature-induced macroscopic states, obtain a geometric representation of the time-dependent topological states and identify several configurations with different degrees of symmetry and order.