Search results for "Capillary wave"
showing 8 items of 28 documents
Stability and interactions of nanocolloids at fluid interfaces: effects of capillary waves and line tensions
2008
We analyze the effective potential for nanoparticles trapped at a fluid interface within a simple model which incorporates surface and line tensions as well as a thermal average over interface fluctuations (capillary waves). For a single colloid, a reduced steepness of the potential well hindering movements out of the interface plane compared to rigid interface models is observed, and an instability of the capillary wave partition sum in case of negative line tensions is pointed out. For two colloids, averaging over the capillary waves leads to an effective Casimir--type interaction which is long--ranged, power-like in the inverse distance but whose power sensitively depends on possible res…
Interfaces in the confined Ising system with competing surface fields
2005
Abstract When a magnetic Ising film is confined in a L × M geometry ( L ⪡ M ) short-range competing magnetic fields ( h 1 ) are applied at opposite walls along the M -direction, a (weakly rounded) localization–delocalization transition of the interface between domains of different orientation that runs parallel to walls can be observed. This transition is the precursor of a wetting phase transition that occurs in the limit of infinite film thickness ( L → ∞ ) at the critical curve T w ( h 1 ) . For T T w ( h 1 ) ( T > T w ( h 1 ) ) such an interface is bound to (unbound from) the walls, while right at T w ( h 1 ) the interface is freely fluctuating around the center of the film. We present …
Pressure dependent arrangement of a protein in two-dimensional crystals specifically bound to a monolayer
1993
Abstract The arrangement of streptavidin bound to a biotinylated monolayer of a polymeric amphiphile at the air-water interface is studied as a function of lateral pressure or ligand density. Closely packed domains are observed by fluorescence microscopy. The arrangement of the protein in these domains is sensitively detected by X-ray reflectivity and an especially thorough data analysis yields the following: the distance of the protein from the air-monolayer interface varies with lateral pressure by 10 A; the interfaces involving the protein are much rougher than expected due to capillary waves; the electron density of the protein layer increases considerably on compression, which can be u…
Monte Carlo studies of anisotropic surface tension and interfacial roughening in the three-dimensional Ising model.
1989
Extensive Monte Carlo simulations of the simple cubic Ising model with nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic interactions with a tilted interface are presented for a wide range of lattice size L, temperature T, and tilt angles \ensuremath{\theta}. The anisotropic interfacial tension is studied in detail. From the small-angle data, we obtain the step free energy density ${f}_{S}$(T,L). Finite-size scaling of the step free energy density is discussed and used to probe the predicted temperature dependence of the correlation length near and above the roughening transition. The square-root temperature dependence predicted by solid-on-solid model calculations is exhibited. Finite-size scaling implies th…
Momentum-dependent interfacial tension in polymer solutions
2002
A model for the interface between a concentrated and a very dilute polymer solution is studied by Monte Carlo simulations at temperatures below the Theta temperature (in bad solvent conditions). The wave-number–dependent interfacial tension γ(q) is extracted from an analysis of the capillary wave amplitudes. It is shown that γ(q) decreases monotonically with q2, while no evidence is found for the predicted increase γ(q) ∝ κq2 with a positive bending rigidity κ of the interface at large q. Consequences for the interpretations of simulations and experiments on interfacial widths are briefly discussed.
‘Intrinsic’ profiles and capillary waves at interfaces between coexisting phases in polymer blends
2001
Abstract Lateral fluctuations in the local position of the center of the interface between coexisting phases in unmixed polymer blends lead to a broadening of interfacial widths; comparing self-consistent field predictions for the ‘intrinsic’ profile to simulations (or experiments), this ‘capillary wave’ broadening needs consideration. This problem has been studied by extensive Monte Carlo simulations of the bond fluctuation model for symmetrical polymer mixtures, both for free interfaces (between bulk phases) and for confined interfaces (in thin films between parallel walls). While the capillary wave predictions at large length scales are confirmed, the extraction of the ‘intrinsic’ profil…
Interfaces between coexisting phases of polymer mixtures: Comparison between Monte Carlo simulations and theoretical predictions
1997
Large scale Monte Carlo investigations of the interface between A-rich and B-rich phases of symmetric binary (AB) polymer mixtures are presented, using the bond fluctuation model of flexible chains with NA=NB=N=32 effective monomers. The temperature range studied, 0.144<T/Tc0.759, includes both the strong and the weak segregation limit. Interfacial free energy and interfacial structure are studied, and compared to predictions based on the selfconsistent field theory. Also the broadening of the interfacial width due to capillary waves is considered, and finite size effects due to the confinement of interfaces in thin films of polymer blends are discussed.
Interfaces in immiscible polymer blends: A Monte Carlo simulation approach on the CRAY T3E
1999
Polymeric materials pose a challenge for Monte Carlo simulations because of the widely spread length and time scales involved. Using large scale computer simulations we investigate the interfacial structure in a partially compatible polymer mixture. The problem is studied in the framework of a coarse grained lattice model - the bond fluctuation model on the simple cubic lattice, choosing N = 32 and lattice linear dimensions L × L × D up to 512 × 512 × 64. We employ a two dimensional geometric decomposition scheme to implement this algorithm on the CRAY T3E. The algorithm scales very well with the number of processors. The structure of polymer coils near interfaces between coexisting phases …