Phase behavior of bent-core molecules.

Abstract

Recently, a new class of smectic liquid crystal phases characterized by the spontaneous formation of macroscopic chiral domains from achiral bent-core molecules has been discovered. We have carried out Monte Carlo simulations of a minimal hard spherocylinder dimer model to investigate the role of excluded volume interactions in determining the phase behavior of bent-core materials and to probe the molecular origins of polar and chiral symmetry breaking. We present the phase diagram of hard spherocylinder dimers of length-diameter ratio of 5 as a function of pressure or density and dimer opening angle psi. With decreasing psi, a transition from a nonpolar to a polar smectic A phase is observed near psi=167 degrees, and the nematic phase becomes thermodynamically unstable for psi<135 degrees. Free energy calculations indicate that the antipolar smectic A (SmAP(A)) phase is more stable than the polar smectic A phase (SmAP(F)). No chiral smectic or biaxial nematic phases were found.