0000000000639679
AUTHOR
Yu Trukhina
Computer simulation study of a liquid crystal confined to a spherical cavity.
The interplay of surface ordering and elasticity can be studied on the example of a liquid crystal confined to a cavity. We present a computer simulation study of a liquid of hard spherocylinders in a hard spherical cavity. With increasing density, first a uniaxial surface film forms and then a biaxial surface film, which eventually fills the entire cavity. We studied how the surface order, the adsorption, and the shape of the director field depend on the curvature of the wall. We find that orientational ordering at a curved wall is stronger than at a flat wall, while adsorption is weaker. For densities above the isotropic-nematic transition, we always find bipolar configurations.
Osmotic compression of droplets of hard rods: a computer simulation study
By means of computer simulations, we study how droplets of hard, rodlike particles optimize their shape and internal structure under the influence of the osmotic compression caused by the presence of spherical particles that act as depletion agents. At sufficiently high osmotic pressures, the rods that make up the drops spontaneously align to turn them into uniaxial nematic liquid-crystalline droplets. The nematic droplets or "tactoids" that are formed this way are not spherical but elongated, resulting from the competition between the anisotropic surface tension and the elastic deformation of the director field. In agreement with recent theoretical predictions, we find that sufficiently sm…