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Structure and dynamics of interfaces between two coexisting liquid-crystalline phases

Simon Praetorius1, Axel Voigt1, Raphael Wittkowski2, and Hartmut Löwen3

  • 1Institute of Scientific Computing, Technical University Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, Germany
  • 2SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, United Kingdom
  • 3Institut für Theoretische Physik II, Weiche Materie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

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Phys. Rev. E 87, 052406 – Published 28 May, 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.052406

Abstract

A phase-field-crystal model is used to access the structure and thermodynamics of interfaces between two coexisting liquid-crystalline phases in two spatial dimensions. Depending on the model parameters, there is a variety of possible coexistences between two liquid-crystalline phases, including a plastic triangular crystal (PTC). Here, we numerically calculate the profiles for the mean density and for the nematic order tensor across the interface for isotropic-PTC and columnar-PTC (or equivalently smectic-A–PTC) phase coexistence. As a general finding, the width of the interface with respect to the nematic order parameter characterizing the orientational order is larger than the width of the mean-density interface. In approaching the interface from the PTC side, at first, the mean density goes down, and then the nematic order parameter follows. The relative shift in the two profiles can be larger than a full lattice constant of the plastic crystal. Finally, we also present numerical results for the dynamic relaxation of an initial order-parameter profile towards its equilibrium interfacial profile. Our predictions for the interfacial profiles can, in principle, be verified in real-space experiments of colloidal dispersions.

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Phys. Rev. E 87, 052406– Published 28 May, 2013
  • Received 1 February 2013

©2013 American Physical Society

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