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Phenomenological Landau-de Gennesmodelling based on the free energy of nematic liquid crystal colloids is reviewed. Nematic phase, gradient of order, and surface anchoring contributions to the total free energy are used. The numerical finite difference relaxation technique is explained as an efficient tool for the minimisation of the free energy. Effects of the mesh and mesh allocation are discussed. Various conceptually different colloidal structures are calculated to show the universality of themodel. Single particles, dipolar-quadrupolar dimers, entangled dimers, dimers bound by escaped hyperbolic rings, and hierarchically patterned Saturn-ring colloidal superstructures are presented. © 2009 Taylor and Francis.
Ravnik et al. (Thu,) studied this question.