Interparticle force in nematic colloids: Comparison between experiment and theory

We have studied the interparticle force between two colloidal particles in a nematic liquid crystal experimentally and theoretically. The force F was directly measured using dual-beam optical tweezers and was numerically calculated from the equilibrium tensor field around the particles. The dependence of F on the center-to-center distance R between the particles was studied not only for equal-sized particles but also for different-sized ones in various kinds of configurations and arrangements. The magnitude of F between different-sized particles in the dipole configuration depends on their relative arrangement. Both experimental and theoretical force curves are found to be in good agreement with each other. At large R, they also make agreement with those predicted by an electrostatic analogy of nematic field.