Dielectric properties and the ferroelectric transition of the Stockmayer-fluid via computer simulation

Abstract

We report extensive molecular dynamics simulations of the Stockmayer fluid near the transition to fluid ferroelectric ordering monitored via the divergence of the static dielectric constant. The dependence of the transition on dipole strength, μ2, temperature, T, and system size is investigated. The results are compared to a large number of previous simulations in the literature. We find that the effective transition temperature T/(ρ μ2) ≈ 0.19 for ρ = 0.8 is a good estimate in the range of the other parameter values considered here. In addition, we study the local field in relation to the structure and dynamics of the liquid phase as a function of temperature, dipole strength and polarizability.