Nematic ordering and defects on the surface of a sphere:A Monte Carlo simulation study

We examine the ordering of hard rods on the surface of a sphere using computer simulations. As predicted by previous theories of thin nematic shells we observe four s = + 1 / 2 defects. However, the predicted tetrahedral symmetry for the defects and the "baseball" director configuration is...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of chemical physics 2008-03, Vol.128 (10), p.104707-104707-4
Main Author: Bates, Martin A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We examine the ordering of hard rods on the surface of a sphere using computer simulations. As predicted by previous theories of thin nematic shells we observe four s = + 1 / 2 defects. However, the predicted tetrahedral symmetry for the defects and the "baseball" director configuration is not observed. Instead the four defects are located, on average, on a great circle which splits the sphere into two hemispheres, each of which has a splay dominated director configuration. We argue that this result occurs as the bend elastic constant for hard rods is much larger than the splay elastic constant.
ISSN:0021-9606
1089-7690
DOI:10.1063/1.2890724