2007/06/18 by R. L. C. Vink, Vink, R. L. C.
Chemistry · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #Material Dynamics and Properties #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Surfactants and Colloidal Systems #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0706.2424
10 pages, 12 figures
arxiv created 2007/06/18 · openalex publication_date 2007/06/18 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The isotropic-to-nematic transition in liquid crystals is studied in d=3 spatial dimensions. A simulation method is proposed to measure the angle dependent interfacial tension g(theta), with theta the anchoring angle of the nematic phase at the interface. In addition, an alternative liquid crystal model is introduced, defined on a lattice. The advantage of the lattice model is that accurate simulations of anchoring effects become possible. For the lattice model, g(theta) depends sensitively on the nearest-neighbor pair interaction, and both stable and metastable anchoring angles can be detected. We also measure g(theta) for an off-lattice fluid of soft rods. For soft rods, only one stable anchoring angle is found, corresponding to homogeneous alignment of the nematic director in the plane of the interface. This finding is in agreement with most theoretical predictions obtained for hard rods.