Nematic and gas-liquid transitions for sticky rods on square and cubic lattices.

Abstract

Using grand-canonical Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the phase diagram of hard rods of length L with additional contact (sticky) attractions on square and cubic lattices. The phase diagram shows a competition between gas-liquid and ordering transitions (which are of demixing type on the square lattice for L≥7 and of nematic type on the cubic lattice for L≥5). On the square lattice, increasing attractions initially lead to a stabilization of the isotropic phase. On the cubic lattice, the nematic transition remains of weak first order upon increasing the attractions. In the vicinity of the gas-liquid transition, the coexistence gap of the nematic transition quickly widens. These features are different from nematic transitions in the continuum.