Fluctuation Effects on Microphase Separation in Random Copolymers

Abstract

We study random copolymers consisted of two kinds of monomers with attraction between similar kinds. The mean field analysis of this system indicates a continuous phase transition into a phase with periodic microdomain structure. It is shown that the inverse of the renormalized propagator has a minimum at non-zero wave-numbers. Consequently, there is an anomalously large contribution of fluctuations that make the disordered phase locally stable at every finite temperature. However, below a certain temperature, the ordered phase is shown to be locally stable and a weak first order transition is possible, similar to the weak crystallization theory developed by Brazovskii.

20 pages, RevTex, includes two uuencoded figures

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Deviations from the mean field predictions for the phase behaviour of random copolymers melts
• Three-phase coexistence with sequence partitioning in symmetric random block copolymers
• Glassy phases in Random Heteropolymers with correlated sequences
• Correlated disorder in random block-copolymers
• General weak segregation theory with an application to monodisperse semi-flexible diblock copolymers