In silico study of liquid crystalline phases formed by bent-shaped molecules with excluded-volume type interactions
| Autor: | Piotr Kubala, Wojciech Tomczyk, Michał Cieśla |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
FOS: Physical sciences
molecular dynamics simulations Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter Condensed Matter Physics Atomic and Molecular Physics and Optics Electronic Optical and Magnetic Materials Monte Carlo simulations bent-shaped molecules Condensed Matter::Soft Condensed Matter liquid crystals mirror symmetry breaking Materials Chemistry Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) Physical and Theoretical Chemistry twist-bend nematic Spectroscopy |
| Popis: | What impact does the mesogens’ shape have on the formation of the liquid crystalline phase? Using Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations we numerically studied a liquid composed of achiral, bent-shaped molecules built of tangent spheres. The system is known to spontaneously break mirror symmetry, as it forms a macroscopically chiral, twist-bend nematic phase [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 147801 (2015)]. We examined a full phase diagram by altering the molecules’ curvature along with packing fractions and observed several phases characterized by the orientational and/or translational ordering of molecules. Apart from conventional nematic, smectic A, and the aforementioned twist-bend nematic phase, we identified splay-bend smectic phase. For large densities and strongly curved molecules, another smectic phase emerged, where the polarization vector rotates within a single smectic layer. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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