Monte Carlo investigations of a Gay—Berne liquid crystal

Abstract

We report extensive Monte Carlo simulations of two systems with 512 and 1000 particles interacting with a Gay–Berne potential with strength parameters (µ= 1, ν= 3) that enhance the side-by-side and end-to-end interactions between the particles. We show that the system has a smectic, nematic and isotropic phase and we calculate the order parameters 〈P₂〉, 〈P₄〉, the intermolecular vector distribution and other relevant observables as a function of temperature at a scaled density ρ*= 0.30.