Thin nematic films between curved subtrates

The impact of macroscopically curved surfaces on the microscopic structure of confined molecularly thin liquid crystalline films is investigated in gr and canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulations (GCEMC), in which the thermo dynamic state is determined by the temperature T and the chemical potential mu. This corresponds to experiments employing the surface forces apparatus (SFA), in which a fluid is confined between two crossed cylinders of macro scopic radius R. The thermodynamic state of the film is chosen such that a corresponding bulk liquid crystal is nematic. The film's microscopic struct ure is correlated with the normal stress T-zz (s(z)). The normal stress is used to calculate the solvation force per cylinder radius F(h)/R applied by the film on the crossed cylinders of the SFA setup.