Dr. Andraž Gnidovec (ISTA): Anisotropy and curvature in nanoscale organization

Directionally dependent interactions at the nanoscale are in the forefront of research into novel functional materials. Microscopic structural order is often directly connected to macroscopic material properties and leveraging anisotropy to expand dynamic and assembly behavior of the system enables precise control over its function. Similarly, curved substrates also play a key role in guiding structure formation, commonly driving particles to organize into or onto spherical geometries. The addition of anisotropy to the interaction between particles in spherical confinement can introduce frustration in the system as topological defects disrupt global order, driving new behaviors not observed in flat geometries.
In this talk, I will discuss how anisotropy and curvature together shape material organization in two distinct cases. First, I will focus on systems of hard ellipses on the sphere that interact purely sterically. I will present an algorithm to detect overlaps between spherical ellipses which can be used in packing simulations and demonstrate that curvature leads to inherently disordered packing configurations. In the second part, I will reverse the paradigm and discuss the design of anisotropic interactions to control surface curvature. Leveraging an inverse design framework, I will show how we can optimize interactions to guide self-assembly into structures with tunable target curvature, paving the way for new functional materials with precisely controlled geometries.
Cookies, tea