Patterned liquid crystals for the manipulation of colloidal particles and light

Commercial liquid crystal devices such as displays employ liquid crystals with uniform alignment. Recently, there is growing interest in patterned liquid crystal alignment, as it can affect both the physical properties of liquid crystals and light matter interactions, and lead to novel functions. In this presentation, I will review our recent work on patterned liquid crystal alignment, mainly focusing on the following two topics: (i) manipulation of colloidal particles in nematic liquid crystals, and (ii) manipulation of optical wavefronts using patterned chiral liquid crystals.