Electrically controlled propulsion of skyrmions in chiral nematic

Abstract

Design of soft matter capable of controllable microscale dynamics is a frontier of modern science. Jiahao Chen et al. demonstrate that an electric field can drive particle-like solitons-skyrmions in a chiral nematic along a preprogrammed trajectory with a variable speed within a two-dimensional plane. The effect is rooted in flexoelectric polarization of a deformed director field.