| Grant number: | 13/12873-9 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |
| Start date: | October 01, 2013 |
| End date: | February 28, 2018 |
| Field of knowledge: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics |
| Principal Investigator: | Andre de Pinho Vieira |
| Grantee: | Eduardo dos Santos Nascimento |
| Host Institution: | Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil |
| Associated scholarship(s): | 16/07448-5 - Phase behavior of non-spherical colloidal particles at high densities, BE.EP.DR |
Abstract We aim at investigating microscopic models for nematic liquid crystals which are able to produce stable biaxial phases, characterized by the existence of two spatial directions along which orientational order of the microscopic elements is observed. We will explore two distinct classes of models. For the first class, we assume that the system is microscopically characterized by a mixture of prolate and oblate elements, and that biaxiality appears due to a tendency of such elements to align perpendicularly to each other. For the second class of models, we assume the existence of intrinsically biaxial elements, which possibly coexist with intrinsically uniaxial elements. In both cases, our aim is to investigate what choices of the various interaction parameters lead to the stabilization of biaxial phases at low temperatures, in contrast to the tendency towards phase separation, which usually plagues such systems. We will make use of both analytical methods (such as Bethe-Peierls-like approximations) and Monte Carlo simulations in order to determine the phase diagrams of the various models. | |
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