TY - JOUR
T1 - Biaxial, Twist-bend, and Splay-bend Nematic Phases of Banana-shaped Particles Revealed by Lifting the "smectic Blanket"
AU - Chiappini, Massimiliano
AU - Drwenski, Tara
AU - Van Roij, René
AU - Dijkstra, Marjolein
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Physical Society.
PY - 2019/8/5
Y1 - 2019/8/5
N2 - We perform an extensive computational study on the phase behavior of hard banana-shaped particles, and show that biaxial, twist-bend, and splay-bend nematic phases are metastable with respect to a smectic phase for a system of hard bent spherocylinders. However, if the smectic phase is destabilized - either by polydispersity in the particle length or by curvature in the particle shape - stable biaxial, twist-bend, and splay-bend nematic phases are obtained. This provides a unified and consistent picture on the subtle role of particle shape on the phase behavior of bent rods.
AB - We perform an extensive computational study on the phase behavior of hard banana-shaped particles, and show that biaxial, twist-bend, and splay-bend nematic phases are metastable with respect to a smectic phase for a system of hard bent spherocylinders. However, if the smectic phase is destabilized - either by polydispersity in the particle length or by curvature in the particle shape - stable biaxial, twist-bend, and splay-bend nematic phases are obtained. This provides a unified and consistent picture on the subtle role of particle shape on the phase behavior of bent rods.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85070538928
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.068001
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.068001
M3 - Article
C2 - 31491177
AN - SCOPUS:85070538928
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 123
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 6
M1 - 068001
ER -