Frustration of nanoconfined liquid crystals due to hybrid substrate anchoring

摘要: We present Monte Carlo simulations of liquid-crystalline material confined to a nanoscopic slit-pore. The are carried out under isothermal conditions in specialized isostress ensemble which N fluid molecules exposed compressional stress τ‖ acting on the directions parallel with substrate planes. Fluid-fluid and fluid-substrate interactions modelled as our previous work (M. Greschek et al., Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 1898). study several anchoring mechanisms at solid by introducing an function 0 ≤ g(u) 1 that depends orientation u molecule relative plane; “switches” attraction or off. Here we focus various heterogeneous (i.e., hybrid) scenarios imposing different functions opposite substrates. As compute heat capacity allows us identify states undergoes structural transformation. isotropic-nematic transformation turns be nearly independent specific scenario. This is because director nematic phase assumes direction compromise between enforced competing either substrate. On contrary, lower stresses prealign near slit-pore's midplane depend details