Entropy driven formation of Smectic C in system of Zig-zag shaped molecules

Abstract

We have carried out Monte Carlo simulations of zig-zag shaped molecules where the the molecules is composed of three rigidly linked hard spherocylinder arranged in a zigzag fashion. By varying zigzag angle we have mapped out the whole phase diagram as a function of pressure, molecular density and zigzag angle $\Psi$. For $\Psi$ between $35^0$ and $80^0$ our model simulation exhibits SmC phase. This is the first conclusive evidence where steric interaction arising out of molecular shape alone induce the occurrence of SmC phase for a wide range of zigzag angle. For smaller $\Psi$, a transition from tilted crystal (XT) to nontlted crystal is observed.

4 pages Revtex, 4 eps figures

References in corpus (2)

• Phase Behavior of Bent-Core Molecules
• Monte Carlo Simulation of Liquid-Crystal Alignment and of Chiral Symmetry-Breaking

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Hard-body models of bulk liquid crystals
• The isotropic-to-nematic phase transition in hard helices: theory and simulation
• Phase ordering of zig-zag and bow-shaped hard needles in two dimensions
• Smectic ordering in athermal systems of rod-like triblock copolymers
• Monte Carlo Simulations of Novel Biaxial Ordering in Systems of Uniaxially Interacting Rod-like Ellipsoids