Phase transition in liquid crystal elastomers—A Monte Carlo study employing non-Boltzmann sampling

We investigate nematic-isotropic transition in liquid crystal elastomers employing a variant of Wang–Landau sampling. This technique facilitates calculation of the density of states from which other thermodynamic properties can be obtained. We consider a lattice model of a liquid crystal elastomer a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physica A 2009-02, Vol.388 (4), p.385-391
Main Authors: Jayasri, D., Satyavathi, N., Sastry, V.S.S., Murthy, K.P.N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Elastomers
Liquid crystal
Nematic order
Phase transition
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Summary:We investigate nematic-isotropic transition in liquid crystal elastomers employing a variant of Wang–Landau sampling. This technique facilitates calculation of the density of states from which other thermodynamic properties can be obtained. We consider a lattice model of a liquid crystal elastomer and a Hamiltonian which accounts for interactions among liquid crystalline units and interaction of local nematics with global strain. We investigate the effect of varying the strength of coupling between nematic and orientational degrees of freedom. When the local director is coupled strongly to the global strain, the transition is strongly first order. When the strength of the coupling decreases the transition becomes weakly first order. The transition temperature decreases when the coupling becomes weaker. We also report for the first time results on variation of free energy as a function of average energy at different temperatures and coupling constants.
ISSN:0378-4371
1873-2119
DOI:10.1016/j.physa.2008.10.039