title: A strategy to explore stable and metastable ordered phases of block copolymers.
abstract: Block copolymers with their rich phase behavior and ordering transitions have become a paradigm for the study of structured soft materials. A major challenge in the study of the phase behavior of block copolymers is to obtain different stable and metastable phases of the system. A strategy to discover complex ordered phases of block copolymers within the self-consistent field theory framework is developed by a combination of fast algorithms and novel initialization procedures. This strategy allows the generation of a large number of candidate structures, which can then be used to construct phase diagrams. Application of the strategy is illustrated using ABC star triblock copolymers as an example. A large number of candidate structures, including many three-dimensionally ordered phases, of the system are obtained and categorized. A phase diagram is constructed for symmetrically interacting ABC star triblock copolymers.
authors.affiliation: LMAM and School of Mathematical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Weiquan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Pingwen
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: An-Chang
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Shi