Fig. 3: The recovery of cholesteric tactoids after locally printed patterns.
From: Remodeling and self-healing of individual amyloid tactoids via multiphoton absorption
a. Schematic of an exposure region (disk shape with Ø=60 μm and h = 10 μm, red color) in the center of a tactoid. b. The changes in a laser-induced isotropic region over time within a cholesteric tactoid. The scale bar is 60 μm. c. The changes in the length of the long axis (Ll, blue) and the short axis (Sl, red) of the isotropic region are shown in panel (b). d. The dynamics of the aspect ratio (Ll/Sl) of the isotropic droplet. e. Schematic of the exposure region with three rectangular regions, marked with 1, 2 and 3. f. The recovery dynamics of three laser-induced isotropic regions having 60° (1), 0° (2), and 90° (3) to the long axis (2 R), respectively. The exposed regions maintain the same area initially. The scale bar is 50 μm. g. Angle changes in the three narrow tape-shaped regions from (f). h. Length of three narrow tape-shaped regions vs. recovery time. i. Locally induced isotropic zone (negative tactoid) in the central region and its recovery process, highlighting the nucleation dynamics. The tactoid fully recovered after ~1052 s. The scale bar is 20 μm. j. Schematic illustration showing the ablation of half a cholesteric tactoid in two directions, resulting in two independent tactoids (T1 and T2). Time-lapses show the recovery of the cutting boundaries of T1 and T2. The scale bar is 50 μm. All of the images were captured under a crossed polarizer. Models in panel a, e, and j were created with 3ds Max 2021.
