Columnar liquid crystals formed by bowl-shaped mesogens. A Monte Carlo study

Abstract

We have investigated the stacking of model bowlic mesogens, and the nematic and columnar liquid crystal phases they form upon cooling-down from an isotropic liquid. Starting from an attractive–repulsive interaction obtained by generalising the Gay–Berne pair potential to bowlic shapes, we have performed extensive off-lattice Monte Carlo NPT computer simulations of samples of various sizes: N = 1024, 8192, and 32000 particles. We have examined in particular the length of the polar domains formed and their polydispersity, and characterised in detail the structure of the packing defects terminating the columns.