Structure Function of Polymer Nematic Liquid Crystals: A Monte Carlo Simulation

TL;DR

This paper uses Monte Carlo simulations to study the structure function of polymer nematic liquid crystals, revealing nematic ordering in stiff polymers and confirming theoretical predictions like the bowtie pattern.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Monte Carlo simulations can effectively model nematic ordering in stiff polymers and reproduces key features like the bowtie pattern in the structure function.

Findings

Nematic ordering achieved in stiff polymers of spherical monomers.

Simulation results agree qualitatively with theoretical and experimental data.

Reproduction of the bowtie pattern in the static structure function.

Abstract

We present a Monte Carlo simulation of a polymer nematic for varying volume fractions, concentrating on the structure function of the sample. We achieve nematic ordering with stiff polymers made of spherical monomers that would otherwise not form a nematic state. Our results are in good qualitative agreement with theoretical and experimental predictions, most notably the bowtie pattern in the static structure function.