Reversible structural phase transition in Ni-Mn-Ga alloys in a magnetic field

In Ni_2+x Mn_1?x Ga shape-memory ferromagnetic alloys with coincident magnetic and structural phase transitions, a reversible structural field-induced phase transition was observed at constant temperature and pressure in magnetic fields of about 10 T. Computational results are in qualitative agreement with experiment.     

Disappearance of the gas-liquid phase transition for highly charged colloids

We calculate the full phase diagram of spherical charged colloidal particles using Monte Carlo free energy calculations. The system is described using the primitive model, consisting of explicit hard-sphere colloids and point counterions in a uniform dielectric continuum. We show that the gas-liquid critical point becomes metastable with respect to a gas-solid phase separation at colloid charges Q > or =20 times the counterion charge. Approximate free energy calculations with only one and four particles in the fluid and solid phases, respectively, are used to determine the critical line for highly charged colloids up to Q=2000. We propose the scaling law T*(c) approximately Q(1/2) for this critical temperature.     

Phase separation in colloidal suspensions induced by a solvent phase transition

A colloidal suspension of macroparticles in a solvent is considered near a solvent first-order phase transition. The solvent phase transition is described by a Ginzburg-Landau model with a one-component order parameter which is coupled to the macroparticles coordinates. Wetting of the macroparticle surface by one of the two coexisting phases can induce phase separation of the colloidal particles. This phase separation is first explained by simple thermodynamic arguments and then confirmed by computer simulation of the Ginzburg-Landau model coupled to the macroparticles. Furthermore a topological diagnosis of the interface between the stable and metastable phase is given near phase separation and possible experimental consequences of the phase separation are discussed.     

Model for a binary interaction of ions in the liquid phase

In studies of ionic conductivity, the overall problem is usually divided into two subproblems.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 1, pp. 56–61, January, 1971.     

压强对二元溶液相变、费米共振的影响——二元溶液与纯液体压强效应比较

分别测量了CCl4和C6H6二元溶液和纯液体在不同压强下(0～11GPa)的拉曼光谱。结果表明二元溶液的压强效应明显不同于纯液体的压强效应:2种液体混合,由于体密度增加,分子间距离减小,分子间相互作用能增加,拉曼光谱线频移(兰移)速度增大,二元溶液频移速度大于纯液体的频移速度;谱线劈裂(相变)提前和固有频差Δ0随压强增加而加大;苯的ν1+ν6～ν8、四氯化碳的ν1+ν4～ν3费米共振消失压强减小;不同压缩系数的分子频移速度不同,密度较小的CCl4分子,化学键长,力常数小,压缩系数大,容易压缩。密度大的C6H6分子,化学键短,力常数大,压缩系数小,不易压缩。CCl4分子大多拉曼频移速度大于C6H6分子相近频率的频移速度。并对高压下分子谱线归属、认证有参考价值,对不同环境下的高压效应、分子间相互作用、溶剂效应等研究提供了方法和思路。     

From mixing-demixing to condensation-evaporation phase transition in binary liquids

Summary Binary-fluid mixtures show first-order phase transition phenomena which are either classified as mixing-demixing (phase separation), or as condensation-evaporation. The localization of the transition lines, the characterization of the new phases, and the analysis of the parameters which force model systems to choose one of the two transition mechanisms is the aim of this study. We performed both parallel-molecular-dynamics simulations and integral-equation theory calculations on binary mixtures of Lennard-Jones particles. By fixing the composition and by varying the interaction strength, we found a continuous change between the two kinds of transition mechanisms. Theoretical and simulation results are compared with each other and a quantitative agreement i8s found. However, the simultation analysis appears to be more promising since, in contrast to the integral-equation theory in which the spinodal lines can only be approched, information on the microscopic structure of the new phases can be obtained. Paper presented at the I International Conference on Scaling Concepts and Complex Fluids, Copenello, Italy, July 4–8, 1994.     

Reversible luminescence thermochromism and phase transition in crystals of thiophenylacetylacetonatoboron difluoride

The low-temperature phase transition (−22.4 °C) is accompanied by marked change of the optical properties, as was first revealed for 3-phenylthiopentan-2,4-dionatoboron difluoride (1) in the series of β-diketonatoboron difluorides. This transition was investigated by luminescence and reflection spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSL), X-ray analysis and atomic force microscopy methods. It was observed by the DSL method that at the room temperature the complex existed in its high-temperature modification and transformed into the stable one with ΔH=0.981 kcal/mol below −22.4 °C. The reverse transition takes place at 43.4 °C with ΔH=0.59 kcal/mol. Cooling of 1 results in a noticeable change of its morphology: the crystal cracked along the layer borders and nanometer particles were formed. Having been cooled the light-yellow crystals turned into white powder and luminescence colour changed from aquamarine to white. Heating of the cooled 1 to the 47.9 °C (the second phase transition) results in partial coincidence of the reflection and luminescence spectra, as well as those of initial single crystals that indicates the existence of size-dependent optic properties.     

Fluctuation mediated interaction and phase separation of nanoparticles in a liquid crystal solvent

Water-in-oil microemulsions of nanodroplets in the isotropic phase of a thermotropic liquid crystal exhibit, with decreasing temperature and in anticipation of a demixing transition, enhanced correlation in fluctuations of both molecular orientation and droplet concentration. Mean field modeling of this pretransition behavior, on the basis of a lattice in which the nanodroplets are introduced as holes, shows that the observed interdroplet attractive interaction is produced by the disordering effect of the droplets on the liquid crystal and mediated solely by paranematic fluctuations.     

On the quantum phase transition of a quantum Hall liquid

It is shown that, in the absence of disorder, a quantum Hall liquid undergoes a second-order quantum phase transition as function of the applied magnetic field. The analysis is carried out in the framework of the Chem-Simons-Ginzburg-Landau theory which is shown to exhibit a nontrivial infrared stable fixed point. The corresponding critical exponents are found to be gaussian, and thus universal and independent of the filling fraction.     

Effect of electric field on reentrance transition in a binary mixture of liquid crystals

Employing a phenomenological mean field theory, we analyze the effect of an electric field on the N ? SmA phase transition for pure liquid crystal and on the reentrant nematic phase in a binary mixture of liquid crystals exhibiting the phase sequence I ? N ? SmA ? N_R on cooling. The basic idea of the work is to explain the phase transition behavior of the system by assuming that certain Landau coefficients associated with the order parameters coupling terms of the free-energy density expansion are field dependent. These parameters play a crucial role and show a rapid variation at the SmA ? N_R transition as compared to the SmA ? N transition.     

On the nematic-isotropic phase transition in liquid amyl-ethoxy-cyanstilbene

Measurements of the index of refraction were used to evaluate the temperature dependence of the order parameterS in amyl-ethoxy-cyanstilbene (AECS). The results obtained may be described successfully in the frame of the Landau theory of phase transitions.Dedicated to Academician Vladimír Hajko on the occasion of his 65th birthday.One of us (O. V.) would like to express her sincere gratitude to Dr. L. Bata and his co-workers at the Laboratory of Liquid Crystals, Central Research Institute for Physics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, for having enabled her to perform some of the measurements in their Laboratory and for their friendly help and hospitality.     

Depletion interactions in binary mixtures of repulsive colloids

Acceptance ratio method, which has been used to calculate the depletion potential in binary hard-sphere mixtures, is extended to the computation of the depletion potential of non-rigid particle systems. The repulsive part of the Lennard-Jones pair potential is used as the direct pair potential between the non-rigid particles. The depletion potential between two big spheres immersed in a suspension of small spheres is determined with the acceptance ratio method through the application of Monte Carlo simulation. In order to check the validity of this method, our results are compared with those obtained by the Asakura-Oosawa approximation, and by Varial expansion approach, and by molecular dynamics simulation. The total effective potential and the depth of its potential well are computed for various softness parameters of the direct pair potential.     

New features of a smectic-A-crystal-B phase transition in a homologous series of liquid crystals

The components L _j of the Lorentz tensor and the polarizability density of molecules G in the smectic-A and crystalline-B phases have been determined for homologues of the series of alkyl-p-(4-alkoxybenzylideneamino-)cinnamates. The quantity L _j (G) in both phases is a linear (quadratic) function of the orientational order parameter of molecules S, which is invariant (noninvariant) with respect to the A-B transition, which is manifested in the form of jumps δL _j and δG and enhancement of the G(S) dependence. An increase in the length of terminal molecular chains and weakening of interlayer correlation of molecules are accompanied by strengthening of the A-B transition of the first order and G(S) dependences in both phases together with an increase in δL _j and δG. Change δG and dependence G(S) in the B phase are related to change in the conformation (flattening) of aromatic molecular cores.     

Viscosity of a liquid crystal near the nematic-smectic A phase transition

We report the results of an x-ray scattering study where both the dynamic and the static properties of a liquid crystal (8OCB) near the nematic-smectic A phase transition were probed. The static, time-averaged data show the gradual formation of smectic layers in the nematic phase, and we find that the smectic order correlation length parallel to the molecular axis diverges with the critical exponent nu( parallel )=0.70(4) at the transition. The literature value is nu( perpendicular )=0.58 for the perpendicular direction. By x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy, we find that the viscosity coefficient eta(3) shows critical, diverging behavior at the phase transition with a critical exponent x=0.95(5). This contradicts previous light scattering work (x=0.50), but is in good agreement with the theoretical prediction x=3nu( parallel )-2nu( perpendicular ) by Hossain et al.     

Effective electron-electron interactions and magnetic phase transition in a two-dimensional electron liquid

We investigate the spin-dependent effective electron-electron interactions in a uniform system of two-dimensional electrons to understand the spontaneous magnetization expected to occur at very low density. For this purpose, we adopt the Kukkonen-Overhauser form for the effective interactions which are built by accurately determined local-field factors describing the charge and spin fluctuations. The critical behavior of the effective interaction for parallel spin electrons allows us to quantitatively locate the transition to the ferromagnetic state at r_s≈27. When the finite width effects are approximately taken into account the transition occurs at r_s≈30 in agreement with recent quantum Monte Carlo calculations.