Soft Matter Theory & Simulations Group

PRE: Liq. Cryst.

• Self-organization of tip-functionalized elongated colloidal particles
  Author(s): Mariana Oshima Menegon, Guido L. A. Kusters, and Paul van der SchootWeakly attractive interactions between the tips of rodlike colloidal particles affect their liquid-crystal phase behavior due to a subtle interplay between enthalpy and entropy. Here we employ molecular dynamics simulations on semiflexible, repulsive bead-spring chains where one o […]
• Molecular theory of liquid-crystal ordering in rod-coil diblock copolymers
  Author(s): M. A. Osipov and M. V. GorkunovMolecular-statistical theory of rod-coil diblock copolymers is proposed using the general density functional approach which enables one to consider the cases of both weak and strong segregation. The free energy of the system is expressed as a functional of the phase-space densities of rod and coil m...[Phys. Rev. E 1 […]
• Orientational ordering and layering of hard plates in narrow slitlike pores
  Author(s): Sakine Mizani, Roohollah Aliabadi, Hamdollah Salehi, and Szabolcs VargaWe examine the ordering behavior of hard platelike particles in a very narrow, slitlike pore using the Parsons-Lee density functional theory and the restricted orientation approximation. We observe that the plates are orientationally ordered and align perpendicularly (face-on) […]
• Kinklike pressure wave in the microsized twisted nematic volume
  Author(s): A. V. Zakharov and P. V. MaslennikovWe have described a novel mechanism of the kinklike pressure $\mathcal{P}(z−vt)$ response of the microsized twisted nematic volume under the effect of externally applied electric field $\mathbf{\text{E}}$ directed parallel to the restricted surfaces and induced by a strong local disturbance of the d...[Phys. Rev […]
• Observation of cavity polaritons in a metal-mirror Fabry-Pérot microcavity containing liquid-crystalline semiconductor based on perylene bisimide units
  Author(s): Nobutaka Kani, Makoto Suzuki, Kouichi Nishiyama, Shunsuke Nakanishi, Masahiro Funahashi, and Noriaki TsurumachiWe investigate the optical properties of a metal-mirror microcavity containing a liquid-crystalline (LC) perylene tetracarboxylic bisimide (PTCBI) derivative. Measurements of the transmission's incidence angle dependence show that th […]
• Influence of boundary conditions on the order and defects of biaxial nematic droplets
  Author(s): C. Chiccoli, L. R. Evangelista, P. Pasini, G. Skačej, R. Teixeira de Souza, and C. ZannoniWe employ Monte Carlo simulations to study the defects occurring in a nematic droplet formed by biaxial molecules. The simulations are carried out using a lattice model based on a dispersive orientational biaxial potential previously employed to establish the […]
• Type-I and type-II smectic-${C}^{*}$ systems: A twist on the electroclinic critical point
  Author(s): Joshua Ziegler, Sean Echols, Matthew J. Moelter, and Karl SaundersWe conduct an in-depth analysis of the electroclinic effect in chiral, ferroelectric liquid crystal systems that have a first-order smectic-${A}^{*}$–smectic-${C}^{*}$ (Sm-${A}^{*}$–Sm-${C}^{*}$) transition, and show that such systems can be either type I or type II. In temperature- […]
• Simple model for the stripe phase in compounds with bent-core molecules which exhibit a lower-temperature ferroelectric smectic-$A$ phase
  Author(s): N. V. MadhusudanaBent-core (BC) molecules usually exhibit polar packing in smectic layers in which the long or bow axes tilt with respect to the layer normal. In many compounds, the tilt angle goes to zero, and typically the polarization (P) of neighboring layers has an antiferroelectric order ($\mathrm{Sm}A{P}_{\ma...[Phys. Rev. E 100, 022706] Pu […]
• Landau theory for smectic-$A$–hexatic-$B$ coexistence in smectic films
  Author(s): E. I. Kats, V. V. Lebedev, and E. S. PikinaWe explain theoretical peculiarities of the smectic-$A$–hexatic-$B$ equilibrium phase coexistence in a finite-temperature range recently observed experimentally in free-standing smectic films [I. A. Zaluzhnyy et al., Phys. Rev. E 98, 052703 (2018)]. We quantitatively describe this unexpected phenom...[Phy […]
• Bulk-boundary correspondence in soft matter
  Author(s): Mehmet Ramazanoglu, Şener Özönder, and Rumeysa SalcıBulk-boundary correspondence is the emergence of features at the boundary of a material that are dependent on and yet distinct from the properties of the bulk of the material. The diverse applications of this idea in topological insulators as well as high energy physics prove its universality. Ho […]