Paraelectric and ferroelectric order in two-state dipolar fluids

Abstract

Monte Carlo simulations are used to examine cooperative creation of polar state in fluids of two-state particles with nonzero dipole in the excited state. With lowering temperature such systems undergo a second order transition from nonpolar to polar, paraelectric phase. The transition is accompanied by a dielectric anomaly of polarization susceptibility increasing by three orders of magnitude. The paraelectric phase is then followed by formation of a nematic ferroelectric which further freezes into an fcc ferroelectric crystal by a first order transition. A mean-field model of phase transitions is discussed.