Depletion-induced biaxial nematic states of boardlike particles |
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Authors: | Belli S Dijkstra M van Roij R |
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Affiliation: | Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, Leuvenlaan 4, NL-3584 CE Utrecht, The Netherlands. s.belli@uu.nl |
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Abstract: | With the aim of investigating the stability conditions of biaxial nematic liquid crystals, we study the effect of adding a non-adsorbing ideal depletant on the phase behavior of colloidal hard boardlike particles. We take into account the presence of the depletant by introducing an effective depletion attraction between a pair of boardlike particles. At fixed depletant fugacity, the stable liquid-crystal phase is determined through a mean-field theory with restricted orientations. Interestingly, we predict that for slightly elongated boardlike particles a critical depletant density exists, where the system undergoes a direct transition from an isotropic liquid to a biaxial nematic phase. As a consequence, by tuning the depletant density, an easy experimental control parameter, one can stabilize states of high biaxial nematic order even when these states are unstable for pure systems of boardlike particles. |
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