  Conformational phases of a semiflexible off-lattice homopolymer model near an
attractive substrate are investigated by means of multicanonical computer
simulations. In our polymer-substrate model, nonbonded pairs of monomers as
well as monomers and the substrate interact via attractive van der Waals
forces. To characterize conformational phases of this hybrid system, we analyze
thermal fluctuations of energetic and structural quantities, as well as
adequate docking parameters. Introducing a solvent parameter related to the
strength of the surface attraction, we construct and discuss the
solubility-temperature phase diagram. Apart from the main phases of adsorbed
and desorbed conformations, we identify several other phase transitions such as
the freezing transition between energy-dominated crystalline low-temperature
structures and globular entropy-dominated conformations.
