  By Monte Carlo simulations of a soft ellipsoid model for liquid crystals, we
study whether a layer of grafted liquid-crystalline chain molecules can induce
tilt in a nematic fluid. The chains are fairly short (four monomers) and made
of the same particles as the solvent. They are attached to a substrate which
favors parallel (planar) alignment. At low grafting densities, the substrate
dominates and we observe planar alignment. On increasing the grafting density,
we find a first order transition from planar to tilted alignment. Beyond the
transition, the tilt angle with respect to the surface normal decreases
continuously. The range of accessible anchoring angles is quite large.
