Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Ordered phases of rigid cores having semiflexible tails. II. Model for smectic-A and reentrant-nematic phases with hard repulsions

Journal Article · · Phys. Rev. A; (United States)

The general partition function of the preceding paper is applied to the special cases of smectic-A and nematic liquid crystals and isotropic liquids in bulk phases. The relative stabilities of the isotropic, nematic, smectic-A, and reentrant-nematic phases are studied as a function of temperature, pressure, tail flexibility, and tail length. The following thermodynamic and molecular ordering properties are studied in these phases and at the phase transitions: smectic-A order parameter, core and tail intermolecular orientational order parameters, tail intramolecular orientational order parameter, density, and entropy. The role of the semiflexible tails in stabilizing the smectic-A and reentrant-nematic phases is explicitly elucidated.

Research Organization:
Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
5267705
Journal Information:
Phys. Rev. A; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev. A; (United States) Vol. 28:6; ISSN PLRAA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English