Finite-size scaling analysis of isotropic-nematic phase transitions in an anisometric Lennard-Jones fluid

Greschek, Manuel; Schoen, Martin

doi:10.1103/physreve.83.011704

Cited by 34 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(134 reference statements)

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“…However, these small values of λ ( z ) should be perceived as a consequence of the finiteness of our system, an effect which is well understood and has been analyzed quantitatively for the achiral version of our model [37]. As before, in the cholesteric phase, n x ( z ) and n y ( z ) can be described by sine or cosine functions, indicating that there is a remaining director rotating in the x – y plane, but, now, with an almost vanishingly small order parameter, which also explains the relative noisiness of n x ( z ) in Figure 5.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanoconfinement-Induced Structures in Chiral Liquid Crystals

Melle

Theile

Hall

et al. 2013

IJMS

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We employ Monte Carlo simulations in a specialized isothermal-isobaric and in the grand canonical ensemble to study structure formation in chiral liquid crystals as a function of molecular chirality. Our model potential consists of a simple Lennard-Jones potential, where the attractive contribution has been modified to represent the orientation dependence of the interaction between a pair of chiral liquid-crystal molecules. The liquid crystal is confined between a pair of planar and atomically smooth substrates onto which molecules are anchored in a hybrid fashion. Hybrid anchoring allows for the formation of helical structures in the direction perpendicular to the substrate plane without exposing the helix to spurious strains. At low chirality, we observe a cholesteric phase, which is transformed into a blue phase at higher chirality. More specifically, by studying the unit cell and the spatial arrangement of disclination lines, this blue phase can be established as blue phase II. If the distance between the confining substrates and molecular chirality are chosen properly, we see a third structure, which may be thought of as a hybrid, exhibiting mixed features of a cholesteric and a blue phase.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanoconfinement-Induced Structures in Chiral Liquid Crystals

Melle

Theile

Hall

et al. 2013

IJMS

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“…It turns out that at SMF level, T * is underestimated whereas at MMF level it is overestimated.To overcome this problem we determine T * via FSS. Following Ref 17. we first calculate the coexistence temperature T IN ≃ 1.02 at the IN phase transition.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…we first calculate the coexistence temperature T IN ≃ 1.02 at the IN phase transition. It is given as the intersection of the second-order Binder cumulants of S for different system sizes[17]. From the expression T * = T IN − 2B 2 /9aC[18] and using B, C, and a from DFT, T * can easily be determined.…”

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confidence: 99%

Coarse-grained treatment of the self-assembly of colloids suspended in a nematic host phase

et al. 2016

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The complex interplay of molecular scale effects, nonlinearities in the orientational field and long-range elastic forces makes liquid-crystal physics very challenging. A consistent way to extract information from the microscopic, molecular scale up to the meso- and macroscopic scale is still missing. Here, we develop a hybrid procedure that bridges this gap by combining extensive Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, a local Landau-de Gennes theory, classical density functional theory, and finite-size scaling theory. As a test case to demonstrate the power and validity of our novel approach we study the effective interaction among colloids with Boojum defect topology immersed in a nematic liquid crystal. In particular, at sufficiently small separations colloids attract each other if the angle between their center-of-mass distance vector and the far-field nematic director is about 30°. Using the effective potential in coarse-grained two-dimensional MC simulations we show that self-assembled structures formed by the colloids are in excellent agreement with experimental data.

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“…denotes a unit vector. As in our previous work [19][20][21][22] we decompose the intermolecular interaction potential into an isotropic and an anisotropic contribution,…”

Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imprinting substrate structures onto a nematic liquid crystal

Greschek

Gubbins

Schoen

2012

The Journal of Chemical Physics

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By means of Monte Carlo simulations in the grand canonical ensemble we study the morphology of the nematic phase of a simple model liquid crystal interacting with an alternating sequence of chemically different stripes. The stripes anchor molecules such that their orientation is either parallel or perpendicular with the substrate plane. The different molecular orientations are realized through anchoring functions that cause an energetic penalty for molecules oriented in an undesired fashion. We consider combinations of monostable and degenerate anchoring fields. The nature of the nematic phase is characterized through both the local nematic order parameter and the associated local director field. We observe states of uniaxial or biaxial symmetry depending on the ratio of stripe widths and the range of fluid-substrate attraction. In some cases the specific substrate pattern causes regions of biaxial symmetry to coexist with a bulk-like regime sufficiently far away from the substrates in which the local director field indicates a (homogeneous) bent state of the nematic liquid crystal.

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Finite-size scaling analysis of isotropic-nematic phase transitions in an anisometric Lennard-Jones fluid

Cited by 34 publications

References 57 publications

Nanoconfinement-Induced Structures in Chiral Liquid Crystals

Nanoconfinement-Induced Structures in Chiral Liquid Crystals

Coarse-grained treatment of the self-assembly of colloids suspended in a nematic host phase

Imprinting substrate structures onto a nematic liquid crystal

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