Structure and dynamics of interfaces between two coexisting liquid crystalline phases

Abstract

The phase-field-crystal model is used to access the structure and thermodynamics of interfaces between two coexisting liquid crystalline phases in two spatial dimensions. Depending on the model parameters there is a variety of possible coexistences between two liquid crystalline phases including a plastic triangular crystal (PTC). Here, we calculate numerically the profiles for the mean density and the nematic order tensor across the interface for isotropic-PTC and columnar-PTC respectively smectic A-PTC coexistence. As a general finding, the width of the interface with respect to the nematic order parameter characterizing the orientational order is larger than the width of the mean density interface. In approaching the interface from the PTC side, at first the mean density goes down and then the nematic order parameter follows. The relative shift of the two profiles can be larger than a full lattice constant of the plastic crystal. Finally, we also present numerical results for the dynamic relaxation of an initial order-parameter profile towards its equilibrium interfacial profile. Our predictions for the interfacial profiles can in principle be verified in real-space experiments of colloidal dispersions.

9 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Phase-field-crystal models for condensed matter dynamics on atomic length and diffusive time scales: an overview
• Derivation of the phase field crystal model for colloidal solidification
• Tension and stiffness of the hard sphere crystal-fluid interface
• The isotropic-nematic interface in suspensions of hard rods: Mean-field properties and capillary waves
• Description of hard sphere crystals and crystal-fluid interfaces: a critical comparison between density functional approaches and a phase field crystal model
• Interfacial tension of the isotropic--nematic interface in suspensions of soft spherocylinders
• Modelling fluids and crystals using a two-component modified phase field crystal model
• Mode expansion for the density profile of crystal-fluid interfaces: Hard spheres as a test case

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Classical dynamical density functional theory: from fundamentals to applications
• Active crystals on a sphere
• Phase diagram of two-dimensional hard rods from fundamental mixed measure density functional theory
• Collective dynamics of active Brownian particles in three spatial dimensions: a predictive field theory
• Development and Analysis of a Block-Preconditioner for the Phase-Field Crystal Equation
• A Landau-de Gennes theory for hard colloidal rods: defects and tactoids
• Interface structures in ionic liquid crystals
• Liquid crystalline growth within a phase-field crystal model