Effect of soft repulsive wall on the bulk phases of thermotropic liquid crystals.

Using the computer simulations, the effect of soft repulsive wall on a system comprising of thermotropic liquid crystalline material is studied. We place the walls perpendicular to the z-axis at the ends of an anisotropic box with the periodic boundary conditions along x and y axes. Here, the wall interaction strength, temperature and density are the control parameters. We analysed the effect of temperature on the system confined by the wall at different number densities. Within a limited range of temperatures, we observe that temperature is actually a good control parameter in the system. Moreover, the effect of wall on the system is more pronounced at low number densities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]