Issue 8, 2022

Substrate induced freezing, melting and depinning transitions in two-dimensional liquid crystalline systems

Abstract

We use molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the ordering phenomena in two-dimensional (2D) liquid crystals over the one-dimensional periodic substrate (1DPS). We have used Gay-Berne (GB) potential to model the interaction between a pair of liquid crystalline (LC) particles. The underlying substrate potential with which the GB particles interact varies sinusoidally in one direction only. At a given temperature and density of the GB system, we varied the substrate's periodicity (as) but fixed the substrate strength. We observed that with a small value of as, an underlying substrate helps to stabilize a disordered LC nematic phase to a 2D solid phase. However, for an intermediate range of as, the system melts and transitions to a modulate-smectic. Finally, with a further increase in as, the system undergoes a structural depinning transition and returns to an LC nematic phase like a free system with no substrate. We argue that a three-way interplay of the energies arising from orientation-dependent particle–particle and particle–substrate interaction makes it possible for the system to undergo substrate–periodicity-dependent multiple phase transitions in the GB LC system.

Graphical abstract: Substrate induced freezing, melting and depinning transitions in two-dimensional liquid crystalline systems

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Sep 2021
Accepted
10 Jan 2022
First published
12 Jan 2022

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2022,24, 5154-5163

Substrate induced freezing, melting and depinning transitions in two-dimensional liquid crystalline systems

Bharti and D. Deb, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2022, 24, 5154 DOI: 10.1039/D1CP04366H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements