Phase behavior of the Confined Lebwohl-Lasher Model

Abstract

The phase behavior of confined nematogens is studied using the Lebwohl-Lasher model. For three dimensional systems the model is known to exhibit a discontinuous nematic-isotropic phase transition, whereas the corresponding two dimensional systems apparently show a continuous Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless like transition. In this paper we study the phase transitions of the Lebwohl-Lasher model when confined between planar slits of different widths in order to establish the behavior of intermediate situations between the pure planar model and the three-dimensional system, and compare with previous estimates for the critical thickness, i.e. the slit width at which the transition switches from continuous to discontinuous.

Submitted to Physical Review E

References in corpus (3)

• Liquid crystals in two dimensions: First-order phase transitions and nonuniversal critical behavior
• Phase diagram and structure of colloid-polymer mixtures confined between walls
• The isotropic-to-nematic transition in confined liquid crystals : an essentially non-universal phenomenon

Cited by in corpus (3)

• A two-dimensional nematic phase of magnetic nanorods
• Theory and simulation of the confined Lebwohl-Lasher model
• Phase behaviour of the confined lattice gas Lebwohl-Lasher model