Related papers: First order isotropic - smectic-A transition in li…
Using the classical density functional theory of freezing and Monte Carlo computer simulations, we explore the liquid-crystalline phase behavior of hard rectangles on flat and cylindrical manifolds. Moreover, we study the effect of a static…
The smectic C (smC) phase represents a unique class of liquid crystal phases characterised by the layered arrangement of molecules with tilted orientations with respect to layer normals. Building upon the real-valued tensorial smectic A…
Ferronematic phases, composed of liquid crystals doped with magnetic nanoparticles, exhibit unique magnetomechanical coupling effects that are of interest for responsive materials. In this study, we investigate the influence of…
It may be possible to stabilize new superfluid phases of $^{3}$He with anisotropic silica aerogels. We discuss two methods that introduce anisotropy in the aerogel on length scales relevant to superfluid $^{3}$He. First, anisotropy can be…
The concept of a vestigial nematic order emerging from a "mother" spin or charge density-wave state has been applied to describe the phase diagrams of several systems, including unconventional superconductors. In a perfectly clean system,…
We have determined the nematic-isotropic transition temperature as a function of applied magnetic field in three different thermotropic liquid crystalline dimers. These molecules are comprised of two rigid calamitic moieties joined end to…
In this article we consider systems of parallel hard {\it superellipsoids}, which can be viewed as a possible interpolation between ellipsoids of revolution and cylinders. Superellipsoids are characterized by an aspect ratio and an exponent…
We use a series of molecular dynamics simulations, and analytical theory, to demonstrate that a system of hard spheres confined to a narrow cylindrical channel exhibits a continuous phase transition from an isotropic fluid at low densities,…
The problem of the orientational ordering transition for lattice-gas models of liquid crystals is discussed in the low-dimensional case $d=1,2$. For isotropic short-range interactions, orientational long-range order at finite temperature is…
We report a computer simulation study of an electroneutral mixture of oppositely charged oblate ellipsoids of revolution with aspect ratio A = 1/3. In contrast to hard or soft repulsive ellipsoids, which are purely nematic, this system…
Employing inelastic X-ray scattering and neutron scattering techniques, we observed nematic and magnetic phase transitions with distinct characters in K$_{5}$Fe$_{4}$Ag$_{6}$Te$_{10}$. Upon cooling, the nematic order undergoes a strongly…
First-order phase transitions are characterized by a discontinuous first derivative of the Gibbs free energy, so that volumes and entropies are discontinuous. Such transitions are common in the crystalline state, but extremely rare in…
The molecule 2-decyl-7-phenyl[1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene has gained a lot of attention, since high charge carrier mobility was observed in thin film transistors. Its thermotropic liquid crystalline states may play an important…
In a type II superconductor in a moderate magnetic field, the superconductor to normal state transition may be described as a phase transition in which the vortex lattice melts into a liquid. In a biaxial superconductor, or even a uniaxial…
Landau - de Gennes mean field model predicts the discontinuous transition for the Isotropic - Nematic transition, associated with uniaxial and quadrupolar order parameter in three dimensions. This report shows pressure-related dielectric…
We elucidate the roles of the isotropic-nematic (I-N) and nematic-smectic A (N-SmA) transitions in magnetic field directed self-assembly of a liquid crystalline block copolymer (BCP), using \textit{in situ} x-ray scattering. Cooling into…
We study the melting of a moving vortex lattice through numerical simulations with the current driven 3D XY model with disorder. We find that there is a first-order phase transition even for large disorder when the corresponding equilibrium…
We use neutron scattering to study the spin and lattice structures of single crystal and powder samples of Na$_{1-\delta}$FeAs ($T_c = 23$ K). On cooling from room temperature, the system goes through a series of phase transitions: first…
We have used the density-functional theory to locate the freezing transitions and calculate the values of freezing parameters for a system of long elongated molecules which interact via the Gay-Berne pair potential. The pair correlation…
We study two aspects of the elasticity of smectic-$A$ elastomers that make these materials genuinely and qualitatively different from conventional uniaxial rubbers. Under strain applied parallel to the layer normal, monodomain smectic-$A$…