Computer simulation of the interface between two liquid crystalline phasesin rod-plate binary mixtures

Metropolis Monte Carlo NVT computer simulations of 50:50 mixtures of L/D = 5 hard spherocylinders (N-HSC = 510) and L/D = 0.12 hard cut spheres (N-CS = 510) have been performed. At the start of the simulation, the system is t aken as a totally demixed state of Fun rods and pure plates. For a packing fraction of 44% the system is found to be a fully mixed isotropic state, wh ile at 48% two ordered phases (one rich in rods and one rich in plates) are found to coexist. In this Letter we examine the stable foe interface betwe en the two liquid crystalline phases paying special attention to the orient ational order through the interface. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.