Nematic-Isotropic Transition with Quenched Disorder
arXiv:cond-mat/0610010 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.74.051707
Abstract
Nematic elastomers do not show the discontinuous, first-order, phase transition that the Landau-De Gennes mean field theory predicts for a quadrupolar ordering in 3D. We attribute this behavior to the presence of network crosslinks, which act as sources of quenched orientational disorder. We show that the addition of weak random anisotropy results in a singular renormalization of the Landau-De Gennes expression, adding an energy term proportional to the inverse quartic power of order parameter Q. This reduces the first-order discontinuity in Q. For sufficiently high disorder strength the jump disappears altogether and the phase transition becomes continuous, in some ways resembling the supercritical transitions in external field.
12 pages, 4 figures, to be published on PRE
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- Statistical physics of isotropic-genesis nematic elastomers: I. Structure and correlations at high temperatures
- Nematics with quenched disorder : violation of self-averaging
- Dimensional reduction and its breakdown in the driven random field O(N) model
- Compressible Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin-glass model
- Dynamic Theory of Polydomain Liquid-Crystal Elastomers
- Uniaxial and biaxial structures in the elastic Maier-Saupe model
- Fluctuation-induced interactions in nematics with disordered anchoring energy
- Polydomain structure and its origins in isotropic-genesis nematic elastomers