Liquid-crystal behavior of hard ellipsoid dimers

Liquid crystals exhibit orientation-dependent phases ranging from a disorde red (isotropic) phase to a highly ordered crystalline phase. In between the se extremes, increasing order can result in nematic and smectic phases. Typ ically, molecular simulation studies of liquid-crystal behavior use a nonsp herical hard-body monomer. In this work, molecular simulation is used to st udy dimers of hard prolate ellipsoids. The results indicate that dimers of hard prolate ellipsoids exhibit a rich diversity of liquid-crystal behavior including smectic phases. In some cases, the dimer model may be a more rea listic alternative to the conventional monomer model for liquid-crystal beh avior. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.