The one dimensional Coulomb lattice fluid capacitor

Abstract: The one dimensional Coulomb lattice fluid in a capacitor configuration is studied. The model is formally exactly soluble via a transfer operator method within a field theoretic representation of the model. The only interactions present in the model are the one dimensional Coulomb interaction between cations and anions and the steric interaction imposed by restricting the maximal occupancy at any lattice site to one particle. Despite the simplicity of the model, a wide range of intriguing physical phenomena arise, some of which are strongly reminiscent of those seen in experiments and numerical simulations of three dimensional ionic liquid based capacitors. Notably we find regimes where over-screening and density oscillations are seen near the capacitor plates. The capacitance is also shown to exhibit strong oscillations as a function of applied voltage. It is also shown that the corresponding mean field theory misses most of these effects. The analytical results are confirmed by extensive numerical simulations.