Inderdigitation, double twist, and topological defects in a system of hard lollipops

Autor: Kubala, Piotr, Cieśla, Michał
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Liquid Crystals, 1-14 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1080/02678292.2024.2310611
Popis: Using hard particle Monte Carlo simulations, we studied a three-dimensional system consisting of identical, lollipop-like particles. Each lollipop was built of five identical, tangent balls placed along a line and one larger ball at one side of the particle and modeled the RM734 molecule, for which ferroelectric and splay nematics were recently discovered in the experiment. Although our model did not recreate these phases, we observed inherently polar type A and C interdigitated smectics. Moreover, an intriguing, isotropic phase consisting of double-twisted clusters joined by planar defects was formed for a moderate packing fraction and ball diameters ratio.
Databáze: arXiv