High-order elastic multipoles as colloidal atoms

Achieving and exceeding the diversity of colloidal analogs of chemical elements and molecules as building blocks of matter has been the central goal and challenge of colloidal science ever since Einstein introduced the colloidal atom paradigm. Recent significant advances have been achieved by exploiting the powerful machinery of DNA hybridization to assemble colloidal particles, but robust physical means of defining colloidal atoms and molecules remain limited. Here we introduce the physical design principles that allow for defining high leading-order elastic colloidal multipoles that emerge when particles with controlled shapes and surface boundary conditions are introduced into a nematic host fluid. Combination of experiments and numerical modeling of equilibrium field configurations, with a subsequent spherical harmonic expansion, allows us to systematically probe elastic multipole moments, bringing analogies with electromagnetism and structure of outmost occupied shells of atomic orbitals. We show that, at least in view of the symmetry of the "director wiggle" wave functions, the diversity of elastic colloidal atoms can far exceed that of known chemical elements.