胶体相互作用及自组织是软物质物理学的重要研究方向。液晶界面的胶体具有复杂的相互作用和自组织行为，具有很高的学术研究价值。本课题以向列相液晶界面的胶体液滴为研究对象，采用光学显微成像和理论计算的手段，研究液晶界面胶体的相互作用及自组织规律。实验上观测与表征多种复杂的新型自组织结构，如分枝状、团状、由手性作用引发的复杂结构等，且通过多种实验参数对结构进行调控。理论上用弹性多极矩、液晶弹性力与表面张力耦合理论分析与解释这些新现象的物理机制；特别地，揭示longitudinal dipole、chiral dipole，及各弹性偶极矩分量与弹性四极矩的耦合在胶体自组织中的重要作用；同时定量研究弹性力与张力耦合在多体问题中的放大效应。本课题不但将拓展人们对液晶胶体体系相互作用与自组织的认识，具有重要的理论意义，而且提供了一种利用液晶界面自下而上制作复杂胶体结构的方法，对实际应用具有重要指导意义。

The interaction and self-assembly of colloids are an important research direction of soft matter physics. Colloids at liquid crystal interface exhibit complex interactions and self-assembling behaviors, and have high academic research value. In this project, the interaction and self-assembly of colloidal droplets at a nematic liquid crystal interface will be studied by means of optical microscopy and theoretical calculation. Experimentally, a variety of complex novel self-assembling structures, such as branching, cluster, and complex structures caused by chiral effects, etc., will be observed and characterized, and the structures will be controlled by changing various experimental parameters. Theoretically, the physical mechanism of these new phenomena will be analyzed and explained by the theory of elastic multipoles, and elasto-capillary coupling; in particular, the important role of longitudinal dipole, chiral dipole and the coupling between different types of dipoles and quadrupole in colloidal self-assembly will be revealed, and the many-body effect of the collective elasto-capillary coupling will be studied quantitatively. This project will not only expand people's understanding of the interaction and self-assembly of liquid crystal colloids, which has important theoretical significance, but also provides a bottom-up method for producing complex colloidal structures by liquid crystal interface, which has substantial guiding significance for practical applications.