Related papers: Surface and smectic layering transitions in binary…
We study the kinetics of the isotropic-smectic phase transition in a colloidal rod/polymer mixture by visualizing individual smectic layers. First, we show that the bulk isotropic-smectic phase transition is preceded by a surface freezing…
The effect of cylindrical confinement on the phase behaviour of a system of parallel hard rods is studied using Onsager's second virial theory. The hard rods are represented as hard cylinders of diameter $D$ and length $L$, while the…
We analyse a binary mixture of colloidal parallel hard cylindrical particles with identical diameters but dissimilar lengths $L_1$ and $L_2$, with $s=L_2/L_1=3$, confined by two parallel hard walls in a planar slit-pore geometry, using a…
We numerically investigate two-dimensional systems of hard rectangles at constant pressure through extensive hard-particle Monte Carlo simulations. We determine the complete phase diagram as a function of packing fraction and aspect ratio,…
A coupled phase-field and hydrodynamic model is introduced to describe a two-phase, weakly compressible smectic (layered phase) in contact with an isotropic fluid of different density. A non-conserved smectic order parameter is coupled to a…
We study the layer-to-layer diffusion in smectic-A liquid crystals of colloidal hard rods with different length-to-diameter ratios using computer simulations. The layered arrangement of the smectic phase yields a hopping-type diffusion due…
The phase behavior of the system of parallel rigid triblock copolymers is examined using the second-virial density functional theory. The triblock particle consists of two identical infinitely thin hard rods of finite lengths on the…
Density functional theory is used to study colloidal hard-rod fluids near an individual right-angled wedge or edge as well as near a hard wall which is periodically patterned with rectangular barriers. The Zwanzig model, in which the…
Semiflexible polymers in concentrated lyotropic solution are studied within a bead-spring model by molecular dynamics simulations, focusing on the emergence of a smectic A phase and its properties. We systematically vary the density of the…
Soft modulated phases have been shown to undergo complex morphological transitions, in which layer remodeling induced by mean and Gaussian curvatures plays a major role. This is the case in smectic films under thermal treatment, where focal…
We present molecular dynamics (MD) results to discuss wetting kinetics in binary fluid mixtures ($A:B=50:50$) undergoing surface-directed spinodal decomposition (SDSD) on an amorphous wall. Our simulations show the formation of a wetting…
Elongated colloidal rods at sufficient packing conditions are known to form stable lamellar or smectic phases. Using a simplified volume-exclusion model, we propose a generic equation-of-state for hard-rod smectics that is robust against…
We report the smectic $A_F$, a new liquid crystal phase of the ferroelectric nematic realm. The smectic $A_F$ is a phase of small polar, rod-shaped molecules which form two-dimensional fluid layers spaced by approximately the mean molecular…
Using computer simulations, we studied the diffusion and structural relaxation in equilibrium smectic liquid crystal bulk phases of parallel hard spherocylinders. These systems exhibit a non-Gaussian layer-to-layer diffusion due to the…
Density functional theory is used to study binary colloidal fluids consisting of hard spheres and thin platelets in their bulk and near a planar hard wall. This system exhibits liquid-liquid coexistence of a phase that is rich in spheres…
By employing Molecular Dynamics computer simulations, the phase behavior of systems of rodlike particles with varying degree of internal flexibility has been traced from the perfectly rigid rod limit till very flexible particles, and from…
By means of classical density functional theory and its dynamical extension, we consider a colloidal fluid with spherically-symmetric competing interactions, which are well known to exhibit a rich bulk phase behavior. This includes complex…
Using particle-resolved molecular-dynamics simulations, we compute the phase diagram for soft repulsive spherocylinders confined on the surface of a sphere. While crystal (K), smectic (Sm), and isotropic (I) phases exhibit a stability…
We investigate the phase behaviour of a two-dimensional colloidal model system of ultra-soft particles on a substrate which varies periodically along one spatial direction. Our calculations are based on mean-field density functional theory…
Within an Onsager-like density functional theory we explore the thermodynamic and structural properties of an isotropic and nematic fluid of hard needle-like colloids in contact with a hard substrate coated with a soft short-ranged…