We study mutual alignment and interactions between colloidal particles ofdissimilar shapes and dimensions when dispersed in a nematic host fluid. Convexpentagonal and concave starfruit-shaped nanoprisms and microspheres inducedipolar or quadrupolar director structures. The ensuing elastic pairinteractions between microspheres and nanoprisms are highly dependent on thenanoparticle shape being omnidirectionally attractive for convex prisms butstrongly anisotropic for concave prisms. Elastic deformations due to sphericalparticles cause well-defined alignment of complex-shaped nanoparticles atdistances much larger than the microsphere size. We characterize distance andangular dependencies of elastic pair interaction forces, torques, and bindingenergies. The studied elasticity-mediated self-assembly of metal and dielectricnanoparticles with dissimilar shapes and sizes opens new possibilities forself-assembly based fabrication of structured mesoscopic composites withpredesigned properties.
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