Formation of a nematic monodomain in a model liquid crystal film

We present details of a cooling sequence of computer simulations performed on an unconfined liquid crystal film. The system studied comprised 7104 Gay -Berne particles and formed a liquid film approximately 70 molecular length s wide. On cooling from the isotropic liquid phase, the film developed into a persistent fluctuating multi-domain state with very long equilibration t imes. A rapid quench to lower temperatures ultimately resulted in the forma tion of a nematic monodomain, surface-anchored domains slowly dominating th e inherently unpinned islands of nematic at the centre of the film. It is a rgued that this sequence of events arose due to the system's orientationall y disordered liquid-vapour interfaces (i.e. its property of isotropic wetti ng). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.