ViewVC Help
View File | Revision Log | Show Annotations | View Changeset | Root Listing
root/group/trunk/tengDissertation/LiquidCrystal.tex
(Generate patch)

Comparing trunk/tengDissertation/LiquidCrystal.tex (file contents):
Revision 2685 by tim, Mon Apr 3 18:07:54 2006 UTC vs.
Revision 2839 by tim, Fri Jun 9 02:41:58 2006 UTC

# Line 2 | Line 2
2  
3   \section{\label{liquidCrystalSection:introduction}Introduction}
4  
5 + Long range orientational order is one of the most fundamental
6 + properties of liquid crystal mesophases. This orientational
7 + anisotropy of the macroscopic phases originates in the shape
8 + anisotropy of the constituent molecules. Among these anisotropy
9 + mesogens, rod-like (calamitic) and disk-like molecules have been
10 + exploited in great detail in the last two decades\cite{Huh2004}.
11 + Typically, these mesogens consist of a rigid aromatic core and one
12 + or more attached aliphatic chains. For short chain molecules, only
13 + nematic phases, in which positional order is limited or absent, can
14 + be observed, because the entropy of mixing different parts of the
15 + mesogens is paramount to the dispersion interaction. In contrast,
16 + formation of the one dimension lamellar sematic phase in rod-like
17 + molecules with sufficiently long aliphatic chains has been reported,
18 + as well as the segregation phenomena in disk-like molecules.
19 +
20 + Recently, the banana-shaped or bent-core liquid crystal have became
21 + one of the most active research areas in mesogenic materials and
22 + supramolecular chemistry\cite{Niori1996, Link1997, Pelzl1999}.
23 + Unlike rods and disks, the polarity and biaxiality of the
24 + banana-shaped molecules allow the molecules organize into a variety
25 + of novel liquid crystalline phases which show interesting material
26 + properties. Of particular interest is the spontaneous formation of
27 + macroscopic chiral layers from achiral banana-shaped molecules,
28 + where polar molecule orientational ordering is shown within the
29 + layer plane as well as the tilted arrangement of the molecules
30 + relative to the polar axis. As a consequence of supramolecular
31 + chirality, the spontaneous polarization arises in ferroelectric (FE)
32 + and antiferroelectic (AF) switching of smectic liquid crystal
33 + phases, demonstrating some promising applications in second-order
34 + nonlinear optical devices. The most widely investigated mesophase
35 + formed by banana-shaped moleculed is the $\text{B}_2$ phase, which
36 + is also referred to as $\text{SmCP}$\cite{Link1997}. Of the most
37 + important discover in this tilt lamellar phase is the four distinct
38 + packing arrangements (two conglomerates and two macroscopic
39 + racemates), which depend on the tilt direction and the polar
40 + direction of the molecule in adjacent layer (see
41 + Fig.~\ref{LCFig:SMCP}).
42 +
43 + \begin{figure}
44 + \centering
45 + \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{smcp.eps}
46 + \caption[]
47 + {}
48 + \label{LCFig:SMCP}
49 + \end{figure}
50 +
51 + Many liquid crystal synthesis experiments suggest that the
52 + occurrence of polarity and chirality strongly relies on the
53 + molecular structure and intermolecular interaction\cite{Reddy2006}.
54 + From a theoretical point of view, it is of fundamental interest to
55 + study the structural properties of liquid crystal phases formed by
56 + banana-shaped molecules and understand their connection to the
57 + molecular structure, especially with respect to the spontaneous
58 + achiral symmetry breaking. As a complementary tool to experiment,
59 + computer simulation can provide unique insight into molecular
60 + ordering and phase behavior, and hence improve the development of
61 + new experiments and theories. In the last two decades, all-atom
62 + models have been adopted to investigate the structural properties of
63 + smectic arrangements\cite{Cook2000, Lansac2001}, as well as other
64 + bulk properties, such as rotational viscosity and flexoelectric
65 + coefficients\cite{Cheung2002, Cheung2004}. However, due to the
66 + limitation of time scale required for phase transition and the
67 + length scale required for representing bulk behavior,
68 + models\cite{Perram1985, Gay1981}, which are based on the observation
69 + that liquid crystal order is exhibited by a range of non-molecular
70 + bodies with high shape anisotropies, became the dominant models in
71 + the field of liquid crystal phase behavior. Previous simulation
72 + studies using hard spherocylinder dimer model\cite{Camp1999} produce
73 + nematic phases, while hard rod simulation studies identified a
74 + Landau point\cite{Bates2005}, at which the isotropic phase undergoes
75 + a direct transition to the biaxial nematic, as well as some possible
76 + liquid crystal phases\cite{Lansac2003}. Other anisotropic models
77 + using Gay-Berne(GB) potential, which produce interactions that favor
78 + local alignment, give the evidence of the novel packing arrangements
79 + of bent-core molecules\cite{Memmer2002,Orlandi2006}.
80 +
81 + Experimental studies by Levelut {\it et al.}~\cite{Levelut1981}
82 + revealed that terminal cyano or nitro groups usually induce
83 + permanent longitudinal dipole moments, which affect the phase
84 + behavior considerably. A series of theoretical studies also drawn
85 + equivalent conclusions. Monte Carlo studies of the GB potential with
86 + fixed longitudinal dipoles (i.e. pointed along the principal axis of
87 + rotation) were shown to enhance smectic phase
88 + stability~\cite{Berardi1996,Satoh1996}. Molecular simulation of GB
89 + ellipsoids with transverse dipoles at the terminus of the molecule
90 + also demonstrated that partial striped bilayer structures were
91 + developed from the smectic phase ~\cite{Berardi1996}. More
92 + significant effects have been shown by including multiple
93 + electrostatic moments. Adding longitudinal point quadrupole moments
94 + to rod-shaped GB mesogens, Withers \textit{et al} induced tilted
95 + smectic behaviour in the molecular system~\cite{Withers2003}. Thus,
96 + it is clear that many liquid-crystal forming molecules, specially,
97 + bent-core molecules, could be modeled more accurately by
98 + incorporating electrostatic interaction.
99 +
100 + In this chapter, we consider system consisting of banana-shaped
101 + molecule represented by three rigid GB particles with one or two
102 + point dipoles at different location. Performing a series of
103 + molecular dynamics simulations, we explore the structural properties
104 + of tilted smectic phases as well as the effect of electrostatic
105 + interactions.
106 +
107   \section{\label{liquidCrystalSection:model}Model}
108  
109 + A typical banana-shaped molecule consists of a rigid aromatic
110 + central bent unit with several rod-like wings which are held
111 + together by some linking units and terminal chains (see
112 + Fig.~\ref{LCFig:BananaMolecule}). In this work, each banana-shaped
113 + mesogen has been modeled as a rigid body consisting of three
114 + equivalent prolate ellipsoidal GB particles. The GB interaction
115 + potential used to mimic the apolar characteristics of liquid crystal
116 + molecules takes the familiar form of Lennard-Jones function with
117 + orientation and position dependent range ($\sigma$) and well depth
118 + ($\epsilon$) parameters. The potential between a pair of three-site
119 + banana-shaped molecules $a$ and $b$ is given by
120 + \begin{equation}
121 + V_{ab}^{GB}  = \sum\limits_{i \in a,j \in b} {V_{ij}^{GB} }.
122 + \end{equation}
123 + Every site-site interaction can can be expressed as,
124 + \begin{equation}
125 + V_{ij}^{GB}  = 4\epsilon (\hat u_i ,\hat u_j ,\hat r_{ij} )\left[
126 + {\left( {\frac{{\sigma _0 }}{{r_{ij}  - \sigma (\hat u_i ,\hat u_j
127 + ,\hat r_{ij} )}}} \right)^{12}  - \left( {\frac{{\sigma _0
128 + }}{{r_{ij}  - \sigma (\hat u_i ,\hat u_j ,\hat r_{ij} )}}} \right)^6
129 + } \right] \label{LCEquation:gb}
130 + \end{equation}
131 + where $\hat u_i,\hat u_j$ are unit vectors specifying the
132 + orientation of two molecules $i$ and $j$ separated by intermolecular
133 + vector $r_{ij}$. $\hat r_{ij}$ is the unit vector along the
134 + intermolecular vector. A schematic diagram of the orientation
135 + vectors is shown in Fig.\ref{LCFigure:GBScheme}. The functional form
136 + for $\sigma$ is given by
137 + \begin{equation}
138 + \sigma (\hat u_i ,\hat u_i ,\hat r_{ij} ) = \sigma _0 \left[ {1 -
139 + \frac{\chi }{2}\left( {\frac{{(\hat r_{ij}  \cdot \hat u_i  + \hat
140 + r_{ij}  \cdot \hat u_j )^2 }}{{1 + \chi \hat u_i  \cdot \hat u_j }}
141 + + \frac{{(\hat r_{ij}  \cdot \hat u_i  - \hat r_{ij}  \cdot \hat u_j
142 + )^2 }}{{1 - \chi \hat u_i  \cdot \hat u_j }}} \right)} \right]^{ -
143 + \frac{1}{2}},
144 + \end{equation}
145 + where the aspect ratio of the particles is governed by shape
146 + anisotropy parameter
147 + \begin{equation}
148 + \chi  = \frac{{(\sigma _e /\sigma _s )^2  - 1}}{{(\sigma _e /\sigma
149 + _s )^2  + 1}}.
150 + \label{LCEquation:chi}
151 + \end{equation}
152 + Here, $\sigma_ s$ and $\sigma_{e}$ refer to the side-by-side breadth
153 + and the end-to-end length of the ellipsoid, respectively. The well
154 + depth parameters takes the form
155 + \begin{equation}
156 + \epsilon (\hat u_i ,\hat u_j ,\hat r_{ij} ) = \epsilon _0 \epsilon
157 + ^v (\hat u_i ,\hat u_j )\epsilon '^\mu (\hat u_i ,\hat u_j ,\hat
158 + r_{ij} )
159 + \end{equation}
160 + where $\epsilon_{0}$ is a constant term and
161 + \begin{equation}
162 + \epsilon (\hat u_i ,\hat u_j ) = \frac{1}{{\sqrt {1 - \chi ^2 (\hat
163 + u_i  \cdot \hat u_j )^2 } }}
164 + \end{equation}
165 + and
166 + \begin{equation}
167 + \epsilon '(\hat u_i ,\hat u_j ,\hat r_{ij} ) = 1 - \frac{{\chi
168 + '}}{2}\left[ {\frac{{(\hat r_{ij}  \cdot \hat u_i  + \hat r_{ij}
169 + \cdot \hat u_j )^2 }}{{1 + \chi '\hat u_i  \cdot \hat u_j }} +
170 + \frac{{(\hat r_{ij}  \cdot \hat u_i  - \hat r_{ij}  \cdot \hat u_j
171 + )^2 }}{{1 - \chi '\hat u_i  \cdot \hat u_j }}} \right]
172 + \end{equation}
173 + where the well depth anisotropy parameter $\chi '$ depends on the
174 + ratio between \textit{end-to-end} well depth $\epsilon _e$ and
175 + \textit{side-by-side} well depth $\epsilon_s$,
176 + \begin{equation}
177 + \chi ' = \frac{{1 - (\epsilon _e /\epsilon _s )^{1/\mu} }}{{1 +
178 + (\epsilon _e /\epsilon _s )^{1/\mu} }}.
179 + \end{equation}
180 +
181 + \begin{figure}
182 + \centering
183 + \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{banana.eps}
184 + \caption[]{} \label{LCFig:BananaMolecule}
185 + \end{figure}
186 +
187 + %\begin{figure}
188 + %\centering
189 + %\includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{bananGB.eps}
190 + %\caption[]{} \label{LCFigure:BananaGB}
191 + %\end{figure}
192 +
193 + \begin{figure}
194 + \centering
195 + \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{gb_scheme.eps}
196 + \caption[]{Schematic diagram showing definitions of the orientation
197 + vectors for a pair of Gay-Berne molecules}
198 + \label{LCFigure:GBScheme}
199 + \end{figure}
200 +
201 + To account for the permanent dipolar interactions, there should be
202 + an electrostatic interaction term of the form
203 + \begin{equation}
204 + V_{ab}^{dp}  = \sum\limits_{i \in a,j \in b} {\frac{1}{{4\pi
205 + \epsilon _{fs} }}\left[ {\frac{{\mu _i  \cdot \mu _j }}{{r_{ij}^3 }}
206 + - \frac{{3\left( {\mu _i  \cdot r_{ij} } \right)\left( {\mu _i \cdot
207 + r_{ij} } \right)}}{{r_{ij}^5 }}} \right]}
208 + \end{equation}
209 + where $\epsilon _{fs}$ is the permittivity of free space.
210 +
211   \section{\label{liquidCrystalSection:methods}Methods}
212  
213   \section{\label{liquidCrystalSection:resultDiscussion}Results and Discussion}

Diff Legend

Removed lines
+ Added lines
< Changed lines
> Changed lines