Boundary effects on a spin-model: microemulsions in a confined geometry

Abstract

Widom (1986) formulated a lattice model of microemulsions in terms of a spin-1/2 Ising system with nearest-neighbour ferromagnetic interaction and further-neighbour antiferromagnetic interactions. Through Monte Carlo simulation of the Widom model on a simple cubic lattice of size Lx*Ly*Lz the authors have investigated the surface effects on the structure by imposing physically-motivated boundary conditions. In an interesting range of the interaction parameters they have observed novel structures in the narrow-gap geometry.