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42 \title{Nitrile vibrations as reporters of field-induced phase
43 transitions in 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB)}
44 \author{James M. Marr}
45 \author{J. Daniel Gezelter}
46 \email{gezelter@nd.edu}
47 \affiliation[University of Notre Dame]{251 Nieuwland Science Hall\\
48 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry\\
49 University of Notre Dame\\
50 Notre Dame, Indiana 46556}
51
52 \date{\today}
53
54 \begin{document}
55
56 \maketitle
57
58 \begin{doublespace}
59
60 \begin{abstract}
61 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) is a liquid-crystal-forming compound
62 with a terminal nitrile group aligned with the long axis of the
63 molecule. Simulations of condensed-phase 5CB were carried out both
64 with and without applied electric fields to provide an understanding
65 of the the Stark shift of the terminal nitrile group. A
66 field-induced isotropic-nematic phase transition was observed in the
67 simulations, and the effects of this transition on the distribution
68 of nitrile frequencies were computed. Classical bond displacement
69 correlation functions exhibit a $\sim 40 \mathrm{~cm}^{-1}$ red
70 shift of a portion of the main nitrile peak, and this shift was
71 observed only when the fields were large enough to induce
72 orientational ordering of the bulk phase. Our simulations appear to
73 indicate that phase-induced changes to the local surroundings are a
74 larger contribution to the change in the nitrile spectrum than
75 direct field contributions.
76 \end{abstract}
77
78 \newpage
79
80 \section{Introduction}
81
82 Nitrile groups can serve as very precise electric field reporters via
83 their distinctive Raman and IR signatures.\cite{Boxer:2009xw} The
84 triple bond between the nitrogen and the carbon atom is very sensitive
85 to local field changes and has been observed to have a direct impact
86 on the peak position within the spectrum. The Stark shift in the
87 spectrum can be quantified and mapped onto a field that is impinging
88 upon the nitrile bond. This has been used extensively in biological
89 systems like proteins and enzymes.\cite{Tucker:2004qq,Webb:2008kn}
90
91 The response of nitrile groups to electric fields has now been
92 investigated for a number of small molecules,\cite{Andrews:2000qv} as
93 well as in biochemical settings, where nitrile groups can act as
94 minimally invasive probes of structure and
95 dynamics.\cite{Lindquist:2009fk,Fafarman:2010dq} The vibrational Stark
96 effect has also been used to study the effects of electric fields on
97 nitrile-containing self-assembled monolayers at metallic
98 interfaces.\cite{Oklejas:2002uq,Schkolnik:2012ty}
99
100 Recently 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB), a liquid crystalline
101 molecule with a terminal nitrile group, has seen renewed interest as
102 one way to impart order on the surfactant interfaces of
103 nanodroplets,\cite{Moreno-Razo:2012rz} or to drive surface-ordering
104 that can be used to promote particular kinds of
105 self-assembly.\cite{PhysRevLett.111.227801} The nitrile group in 5CB
106 is a particularly interesting case for studying electric field
107 effects, as 5CB exhibits an isotropic to nematic phase transition that
108 can be triggered by the application of an external field near room
109 temperature.\cite{Gray:1973ca,Hatta:1991ee} This presents the
110 possiblity that the field-induced changes in the local environment
111 could have dramatic effects on the vibrations of this particular CN
112 bond. Although the infrared spectroscopy of 5CB has been
113 well-investigated, particularly as a measure of the kinetics of the
114 phase transition,\cite{Leyte:1997zl} the 5CB nitrile group has not yet
115 seen the detailed theoretical treatment that biologically-relevant
116 small molecules have
117 received.\cite{Lindquist:2008bh,Lindquist:2008qf,Oh:2008fk,Choi:2008cr,Morales:2009fp,Waegele:2010ve}
118
119 The fundamental characteristic of liquid crystal mesophases is that
120 they maintain some degree of orientational order while translational
121 order is limited or absent. This orientational order produces a
122 complex direction-dependent response to external perturbations like
123 electric fields and mechanical distortions. The anisotropy of the
124 macroscopic phases originates in the anisotropy of the constituent
125 molecules, which typically have highly non-spherical structures with a
126 significant degree of internal rigidity. In nematic phases, rod-like
127 molecules are orientationally ordered with isotropic distributions of
128 molecular centers of mass. For example, 5CB has a solid to nematic
129 phase transition at 18C and a nematic to isotropic transition at
130 35C.\cite{Gray:1973ca}
131
132 In smectic phases, the molecules arrange themselves into layers with
133 their long (symmetry) axis normal ($S_{A}$) or tilted ($S_{C}$) with
134 respect to the layer planes. The behavior of the $S_{A}$ phase can be
135 partially explained with models mainly based on geometric factors and
136 van der Waals interactions. The Gay-Berne potential, in particular,
137 has been widely used in the liquid crystal community to describe this
138 anisotropic phase
139 behavior.~\cite{Gay:1981yu,Berne:1972pb,Kushick:1976xy,Luckhurst:1990fy,Cleaver:1996rt}
140 However, these simple models are insufficient to describe liquid
141 crystal phases which exhibit more complex polymorphic nature.
142 Molecules which form $S_{A}$ phases can exhibit a wide variety of
143 subphases like monolayers ($S_{A1}$), uniform bilayers ($S_{A2}$),
144 partial bilayers ($S_{\tilde A}$) as well as interdigitated bilayers
145 ($S_{A_{d}}$), and often have a terminal cyano or nitro group. In
146 particular, lyotropic liquid crystals (those exhibiting liquid crystal
147 phase transitions as a function of water concentration), often have
148 polar head groups or zwitterionic charge separated groups that result
149 in strong dipolar interactions,\cite{Collings:1997rz} and terminal
150 cyano groups (like the one in 5CB) can induce permanent longitudinal
151 dipoles.\cite{Levelut:1981eu} Modeling of the phase behavior of these
152 molecules either requires additional dipolar
153 interactions,\cite{Bose:2012eu} or a unified-atom approach utilizing
154 point charges on the sites that contribute to the dipole
155 moment.\cite{Zhang:2011hh}
156
157 Macroscopic electric fields applied using electrodes on opposing sides
158 of a sample of 5CB have demonstrated the phase change of the molecule
159 as a function of electric field.\cite{Lim:2006xq} These previous
160 studies have shown the nitrile group serves as an excellent indicator
161 of the molecular orientation within the applied field. Lee {\it et
162 al.}~showed a 180 degree change in field direction could be probed
163 with the nitrile peak intensity as it changed along with molecular
164 alignment in the field.\cite{Lee:2006qd,Leyte:1997zl}
165
166 While these macroscopic fields work well at indicating the bulk
167 response, the atomic scale response has not been studied. With the
168 advent of nano-electrodes and coupling them with atomic force
169 microscopy, control of electric fields applied across nanometer
170 distances is now possible.\cite{citation1} While macroscopic fields
171 are insufficient to cause a Stark effect without dielectric breakdown
172 of the material, small fields across nanometer-sized gaps may be of
173 sufficient strength. For a gap of 5 nm between a lower electrode
174 having a nanoelectrode placed near it via an atomic force microscope,
175 a potential of 1 V applied across the electrodes is equivalent to a
176 field of 2x10\textsuperscript{8} $\frac{V}{M}$. This field is
177 certainly strong enough to cause the isotropic-nematic phase change
178 and as well as Stark tuning of the nitrile bond. This should be
179 readily visible experimentally through Raman or IR spectroscopy.
180
181 In the sections that follow, we outline a series of coarse-grained
182 classical molecular dynamics simulations of 5CB that were done in the
183 presence of static electric fields. These simulations were then
184 coupled with both {\it ab intio} calculations of CN-deformations and
185 classical bond-length correlation functions to predict spectral
186 shifts. These predictions made should be easily varifiable with
187 scanning electrochemical microscopy experiments.
188
189 \section{Computational Details}
190 The force field used for 5CB was a united-atom model that was
191 parameterized by Guo {\it et al.}\cite{Zhang:2011hh} However, for most
192 of the simulations, each of the phenyl rings was treated as a rigid
193 body to allow for larger time steps and very long simulation times.
194 The geometries of the rigid bodies were taken from equilibrium bond
195 distances and angles. Although the phenyl rings were held rigid,
196 bonds, bends, torsions and inversion centers that involved atoms in
197 these substructures (but with connectivity to the rest of the
198 molecule) were still included in the potential and force calculations.
199
200 Periodic simulations cells containing 270 molecules in random
201 orientations were constructed and were locked at experimental
202 densities. Electrostatic interactions were computed using damped
203 shifted force (DSF) electrostatics.\cite{Fennell:2006zl} The molecules
204 were equilibrated for 1~ns at a temperature of 300K. Simulations with
205 applied fields were carried out in the microcanonical (NVE) ensemble
206 with an energy corresponding to the average energy from the canonical
207 (NVT) equilibration runs. Typical applied-field equilibration runs
208 were more than 60ns in length.
209
210 Static electric fields with magnitudes similar to what would be
211 available in an experimental setup were applied to the different
212 simulations. With an assumed electrode seperation of 5 nm and an
213 electrostatic potential that is limited by the voltage required to
214 split water (1.23V), the maximum realistic field that could be applied
215 is $\sim 0.024$ V/\AA. Three field environments were investigated:
216 (1) no field applied, (2) partial field = 0.01 V/\AA\ , and (3) full
217 field = 0.024 V/\AA\ .
218
219 After the systems had come to equilibrium under the applied fields,
220 additional simulations were carried out with a flexible (Morse)
221 nitrile bond,
222 \begin{displaymath}
223 V(r_\ce{CN}) = D_e \left(1 - e^{-\beta (r_\ce{CN}-r_e)}\right)^2
224 \label{eq:morse}
225 \end{displaymath}
226 where $r_e= 1.157437$ \AA , $D_e = 212.95 \mathrm{~kcal~} /
227 \mathrm{mol}^{-1}$ and $\beta = 2.67566 $\AA~$^{-1}$. These
228 parameters correspond to a vibrational frequency of $2358
229 \mathrm{~cm}^{-1}$, somewhat higher than the experimental
230 frequency. The flexible nitrile moiety required simulation time steps
231 of 1~fs, so the additional flexibility was introducuced only after the
232 rigid systems had come to equilibrium under the applied fields.
233 Whenever time correlation functions were computed from the flexible
234 simulations, statistically-independent configurations were sampled
235 from the last ns of the induced-field runs. These configurations were
236 then equilibrated with the flexible nitrile moiety for 100 ps, and
237 time correlation functions were computed using data sampled from an
238 additional 200 ps of run time carried out in the microcanonical
239 ensemble.
240
241 \section{Field-induced Nematic Ordering}
242
243 In order to characterize the orientational ordering of the system, the
244 primary quantity of interest is the nematic (orientational) order
245 parameter. This was determined using the tensor
246 \begin{equation}
247 Q_{\alpha \beta} = \frac{1}{2N} \sum_{i=1}^{N} \left(3 \hat{u}_{i
248 \alpha} \hat{u}_{i \beta} - \delta_{\alpha \beta} \right)
249 \end{equation}
250 where $\alpha, \beta = x, y, z$, and $\hat{u}_i$ is the molecular
251 end-to-end unit vector for molecule $i$. The nematic order parameter
252 $S$ is the largest eigenvalue of $Q_{\alpha \beta}$, and the
253 corresponding eigenvector defines the director axis for the phase.
254 $S$ takes on values close to 1 in highly ordered (smectic A) phases,
255 but falls to much smaller values ($\sim 0-0.2$) for isotropic fluids.
256 Note that the nitrogen and the terminal chain atom were used to define
257 the vectors for each molecule, so the typical order parameters are
258 lower than if one defined a vector using only the rigid core of the
259 molecule. In nematic phases, typical values for $S$ are close to 0.5.
260
261 The field-induced phase transition can be clearly seen over the course
262 of a 60 ns equilibration runs in figure \ref{fig:orderParameter}. All
263 three of the systems started in a random (isotropic) packing, with
264 order parameters near 0.2. Over the course 10 ns, the full field
265 causes an alignment of the molecules (due primarily to the interaction
266 of the nitrile group dipole with the electric field). Once this
267 system began exhibiting nematic ordering, the orientational order
268 parameter became stable for the remaining 150 ns of simulation time.
269 It is possible that the partial-field simulation is meta-stable and
270 given enough time, it would eventually find a nematic-ordered phase,
271 but the partial-field simulation was stable as an isotropic phase for
272 the full duration of a 60 ns simulation. Ellipsoidal renderings of the
273 final configurations of the runs shows that the full-field (0.024
274 V/\AA\ ) experienced a isotropic-nematic phase transition and has
275 ordered with a director axis that is parallel to the direction of the
276 applied field.
277
278 \begin{figure}[H]
279 \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{Figure1}
280 \caption{Evolution of the orientational order parameters for the
281 no-field, partial field, and full field simulations over the
282 course of 60 ns. Each simulation was started from a
283 statistically-independent isotropic configuration. On the right
284 are ellipsoids representing the final configurations at three
285 different field strengths: zero field (bottom), partial field
286 (middle), and full field (top)}
287 \label{fig:orderParameter}
288 \end{figure}
289
290
291 \section{Sampling the CN bond frequency}
292
293 The vibrational frequency of the nitrile bond in 5CB depends on
294 features of the local solvent environment of the individual molecules
295 as well as the bond's orientation relative to the applied field. The
296 primary quantity of interest for interpreting the condensed phase
297 spectrum of this vibration is the distribution of frequencies
298 exhibited by the 5CB nitrile bond under the different electric fields.
299 There have been a number of elegant techniques for obtaining
300 vibrational lineshapes from classical simulations, including a
301 perturbation theory approach,\cite{Morales:2009fp} the use of an
302 optimized QM/MM approach coupled with the fluctuating frequency
303 approximation,\cite{Lindquist:2008qf} and empirical frequency
304 correlation maps.\cite{Oh:2008fk} Three distinct (and somewhat
305 primitive) methods for mapping classical simulations onto vibrational
306 spectra were brought to bear on the simulations here:
307 \begin{enumerate}
308 \item Isolated 5CB molecules and their immediate surroundings were
309 extracted from the simulations. These nitrile bonds were stretched
310 and single-point {\em ab initio} calculations were used to obtain
311 Morse-oscillator fits for the local vibrational motion along that
312 bond.
313 \item The empirical frequency correlation maps developed by Cho {\it
314 et al.}~\cite{Oh:2008fk} for nitrile moieties in water were
315 investigated. This method involves mapping the electrostatic
316 potential around the bond to the vibrational frequency, and is
317 similar in approach to field-frequency maps for OH stretches that
318 were pioneered by the Skinner
319 group.\cite{Corcelli:2004ai,Auer:2007dp}
320 \item Classical bond-length autocorrelation functions were Fourier
321 transformed to directly obtain the vibrational spectrum from
322 molecular dynamics simulations.
323 \end{enumerate}
324
325 \subsection{CN frequencies from isolated clusters}
326 The size of the periodic condensed phase system prevented direct
327 computation of the complete library of nitrile bond frequencies using
328 {\it ab initio} methods. In order to sample the nitrile frequencies
329 present in the condensed-phase, individual molecules were selected
330 randomly to serve as the center of a local (gas phase) cluster. To
331 include steric, electrostatic, and other effects from molecules
332 located near the targeted nitrile group, portions of other molecules
333 nearest to the nitrile group were included in the quantum mechanical
334 calculations. The surrounding solvent molecules were divided into
335 ``body'' (the two phenyl rings and the nitrile bond) and ``tail'' (the
336 alkyl chain). Any molecule which had a body atom within 6~\AA\ of the
337 midpoint of the target nitrile bond had its own molecular body (the
338 4-cyano-biphenyl moiety) included in the configuration. Likewise, the
339 entire alkyl tail was included if any tail atom was within 4~\AA\ of
340 the target nitrile bond. If tail atoms (but no body atoms) were
341 included within these distances, only the tail was included as a
342 capped propane molecule.
343
344 \begin{figure}[H]
345 \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{Figure2}
346 \caption{Cluster calculations were performed on randomly sampled 5CB
347 molecules (shown in red) from each of the simulations. Surrounding
348 molecular bodies were included if any body atoms were within 6
349 \AA\ of the target nitrile bond, and tails were included if they
350 were within 4 \AA. Included portions of these molecules are shown
351 in green. The CN bond on the target molecule was stretched and
352 compressed, and the resulting single point energies were fit to
353 Morse oscillators to obtain a distribution of frequencies.}
354 \label{fig:cluster}
355 \end{figure}
356
357 Inferred hydrogen atom locations were added to the cluster geometries,
358 and the nitrile bond was stretched from 0.87 to 1.52~\AA\ at
359 increments of 0.05~\AA. This generated 13 configurations per gas phase
360 cluster. Single-point energies were computed using the B3LYP
361 functional~\cite{Becke:1993kq,Lee:1988qf} and the 6-311++G(d,p) basis
362 set. For the cluster configurations that had been generated from
363 molecular dynamics running under applied fields, the density
364 functional calculations had a field of $5 \times 10^{-4}$ atomic units
365 ($E_h / (e a_0)$) applied in the $+z$ direction in order to match the
366 molecular dynamics simulations.
367
368 The energies for the stretched / compressed nitrile bond in each of
369 the clusters were used to fit Morse potentials, and the frequencies
370 were obtained from the $0 \rightarrow 1$ transition for the energy
371 levels for this potential.\cite{Morse:1929xy} To obtain a spectrum,
372 each of the frequencies was convoluted with a Lorentzian lineshape
373 with a width of 1.5 $\mathrm{cm}^{-1}$. Available computing resources
374 limited the sampling to 67 clusters for the zero-field spectrum, and
375 59 for the full field. Comparisons of the quantum mechanical spectrum
376 to the classical are shown in figure \ref{fig:spectrum}.
377
378 \subsection{CN frequencies from potential-frequency maps}
379
380 One approach which has been used to successfully analyze the spectrum
381 of nitrile and thiocyanate probes in aqueous environments was
382 developed by Choi {\it et al.}~\cite{Choi:2008cr,Oh:2008fk} This
383 method involves finding a multi-parameter fit that maps between the
384 local electrostatic potential at selected sites surrounding the
385 nitrile bond and the vibrational frequency of that bond obtained from
386 more expensive {\it ab initio} methods. This approach is similar in
387 character to the field-frequency maps developed by the Skinner group
388 for OH stretches in liquid water.\cite{Corcelli:2004ai,Auer:2007dp}
389
390 To use the potential-frequency maps, the local electrostatic
391 potential, $\phi_a$, is computed at 20 sites ($a = 1 \rightarrow 20$)
392 that surround the nitrile bond,
393 \begin{equation}
394 \phi_{a} = \frac{1}{4\pi \epsilon_{0}} \sum_{j}
395 \frac{q_j}{\left|r_{aj}\right|}.
396 \end{equation}
397 Here $q_j$ is the partial site on atom $j$ (residing on a different
398 molecule) and $r_{aj}$ is the distance between site $a$ and atom $j$.
399 The original map was parameterized in liquid water and comprises a set
400 of parameters, $l_a$, that predict the shift in nitrile peak
401 frequency,
402 \begin{equation}
403 \delta\tilde{\nu} =\sum^{20}_{a=1} l_{a}\phi_{a}.
404 \end{equation}
405
406 The simulations of 5CB were carried out in the presence of
407 externally-applied uniform electric fields. Although uniform fields
408 exert forces on charge sites, they only contribute to the potential if
409 one defines a reference point that can serve as an origin. One simple
410 modification to the potential at each of the probe sites is to use the
411 centroid of the \ce{CN} bond as the origin for that site,
412 \begin{equation}
413 \phi_a^\prime = \phi_a + \frac{1}{4\pi\epsilon_{0}} \vec{E} \cdot
414 \left(\vec{r}_a - \vec{r}_\ce{CN} \right)
415 \end{equation}
416 where $\vec{E}$ is the uniform electric field, $\left( \vec{r}_{a} -
417 \vec{r}_\ce{CN} \right)$ is the displacement between the
418 cooridinates described by Choi {\it et
419 al.}~\cite{Choi:2008cr,Oh:2008fk} and the \ce{CN} bond centroid.
420 $\phi_a^\prime$ then contains an effective potential contributed by
421 the uniform field in addition to the local potential contributions
422 from other molecules.
423
424 The sites $\{\vec{r}_a\}$ and weights $\left\{l_a \right\}$
425 developed by Choi {\it et al.}~\cite{Choi:2008cr,Oh:2008fk} are quite
426 symmetric around the \ce{CN} centroid, and even at large uniform field
427 values we observed nearly-complete cancellation of the potenial
428 contributions from the uniform field. In order to utilize the
429 potential-frequency maps for this problem, one would therefore need
430 extensive reparameterization of the maps to include explicit
431 contributions from the external field. This reparameterization is
432 outside the scope of the current work, but would make a useful
433 addition to the potential-frequency map approach.
434
435 \subsection{CN frequencies from bond length autocorrelation functions}
436
437 The distribution of nitrile vibrational frequencies can also be found
438 using classical time correlation functions. This was done by
439 replacing the rigid \ce{CN} bond with a flexible Morse oscillator
440 described in Eq. \ref{eq:morse}. Since the systems were perturbed by
441 the addition of a flexible high-frequency bond, they were allowed to
442 re-equilibrate in the canonical (NVT) ensemble for 100 ps with 1 fs
443 timesteps. After equilibration, each configuration was run in the
444 microcanonical (NVE) ensemble for 20 ps. Configurations sampled every
445 fs were then used to compute bond-length autocorrelation functions,
446 \begin{equation}
447 C(t) = \langle \delta r(t) \cdot \delta r(0) ) \rangle
448 \end{equation}
449 %
450 where $\delta r(t) = r(t) - r_0$ is the deviation from the equilibrium
451 bond distance at time $t$. Ten statistically-independent correlation
452 functions were obtained by allowing the systems to run 10 ns with
453 rigid \ce{CN} bonds followed by 120 ps equilibration and data
454 collection using the flexible \ce{CN} bonds, and repeating this
455 process. The total sampling time, from sample preparation to final
456 configurations, exceeded 150 ns for each of the field strengths
457 investigated.
458
459 The correlation functions were filtered using exponential apodization
460 functions,\cite{FILLER:1964yg} $f(t) = e^{-|t|/c}$, with a time
461 constant, $c =$ 6 ps, and were Fourier transformed to yield a
462 spectrum,
463 \begin{equation}
464 I(\omega) = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} C(t) f(t) e^{-i \omega t} dt.
465 \end{equation}
466 The sample-averaged classical nitrile spectrum can be seen in Figure
467 \ref{fig:spectra}. Note that the Morse oscillator parameters listed
468 above yield a natural frequency of 2358 $\mathrm{cm}^{-1}$, somewhat
469 higher than the experimental peak near 2226 $\mathrm{cm}^{-1}$. This
470 shift does not effect the ability to qualitatively compare peaks from
471 the classical and quantum mechanical approaches, so the classical
472 spectra are shown as a shift relative to the natural oscillation of
473 the Morse bond.
474
475 \begin{figure}
476 \includegraphics[width=3.25in]{Convolved}
477 \includegraphics[width=3.25in]{2Spectra}
478 \caption{Quantum mechanical nitrile spectrum for the no-field simulation
479 (black) and the full field simulation (red). The lower panel
480 shows the corresponding classical bond-length autocorrelation
481 spectrum for the flexible nitrile measured relative to the natural
482 frequency for the flexible bond.}
483 \label{fig:spectra}
484 \end{figure}
485
486 Note that due to electrostatic interactions, the classical approach
487 implicitly couples \ce{CN} vibrations to the same vibrational mode on
488 other nearby molecules. This coupling is not handled in the {\it ab
489 initio} cluster approach.
490
491 \section{Discussion}
492
493 It is clear that united-atom simulations can reproduce the
494 field-induced nematic ordering of the 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl.
495 Because we are simulating what is in effect a small electrode
496 separation (5nm), a voltage drop as low as 1.2 V was sufficient to
497 induce the phase change. This potential is significantly lower than
498 the 500V that is known to cause dielectric breakdown in 5CB.\cite{XXX}
499
500 Both the classical correlation function and the isolated cluster
501 approaches to estimating the field-induced changes to the IR spectrum
502 show an increase in the population of nitrile stretches that appear at
503 a shift of $\sim 40 \mathrm{cm}^{-1}$ to the red of the unperturbed
504 vibrational line. The cause of this shift does not appear to be
505 related to the alignment of those nitrile bonds with the field, but
506 rather to the change in local ordering that is brought about by the
507 isotropic-nematic transition.
508
509
510 Ordering corresponds to shift of a portion of the nitrile spectrum to
511 the red. At the same time, the system exhibits an increase in aligned
512 and anti-a
513
514
515
516 While this makes the application of nitrile Stark effects in
517 simulations without water harder, these data show
518 that it is not a deal breaker. The classically calculated nitrile
519 spectrum shows changes in the spectra that will be easily seen through
520 experimental routes. It indicates a shifted peak lower in energy
521 should arise. This peak is a few wavenumbers from the leading edge of
522 the larger peak and almost 75 wavenumbers from the center. This
523 seperation between the two peaks means experimental results will show
524 an easily resolved peak.
525
526 The Gaussian derived spectra do indicate an applied field
527 and subsiquent phase change does cause a narrowing of freuency
528 distrobution. With narrowing, it would indicate an increased
529 homogeneous distrobution of the local field near the nitrile.
530
531 The angle-dependent pair distribution functions,
532 \begin{align}
533 g(r, \cos \omega) = & \frac{1}{\rho N} \left< \sum_{i}
534 \sum_{j} \delta \left(r - r_{ij}\right) \delta\left(\cos \omega_{ij} -
535 \cos \omega\right) \right> \\ \nonumber \\
536 g(r, \cos \theta) = & \frac{1}{\rho N} \left< \sum_{i}
537 \sum_{j} \delta \left(r - r_{ij}\right) \delta\left(\cos \theta_{i} -
538 \cos \theta \right) \right>
539 \end{align}
540 provide information about the joint spatial and angular correlations
541 in the system. The angles $\omega$ and $\theta$ are defined by vectors
542 along the CN axis of each nitrile bond (see figure
543 \ref{fig:definition}).
544
545 \begin{figure}
546 \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{definition}
547 \caption{Definitions of the angles between two nitrile bonds.}
548 \label{fig:definition}
549 \end{figure}
550
551 In figure \ref{fig:gofromega} the effects of the field-induced phase
552 transition are clear. The nematic ordering transfers population from
553 the perpendicular or unaligned region in the center of the plot to the
554 nitrile-alinged peak near $\cos\omega = 1$. Most other features are
555 undisturbed. This increased population of aligned nitrile bonds in
556 the close solvation shells is also the population that contributes
557 most heavily to the low-frequency peaks in the vibrational spectrum.
558
559 \begin{figure}
560 \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{Figure4}
561 \caption{Contours of the angle-dependent pair distribution functions
562 for nitrile bonds on 5CB in the zero-field (upper panel) and full
563 field (lower panel) simulations. Dark areas signify regions of
564 enhanced density, while light areas signify depletion relative to
565 the bulk density.}
566 \label{fig:gofromega}
567 \end{figure}
568
569
570 \section{Conclusions}
571 Field dependent changes
572
573 \section{Acknowledgements}
574 The authors thank Steven Corcelli for helpful comments and
575 suggestions. Support for this project was provided by the National
576 Science Foundation under grant CHE-0848243. Computational time was
577 provided by the Center for Research Computing (CRC) at the University
578 of Notre Dame.
579
580 \newpage
581
582 \bibliography{5CB}
583
584 \end{doublespace}
585 \end{document}