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Phase-Transitions

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Physics

Search For Biaxiality In A Shape-Persistent Bent-Core Nematic Liquid Crystal, Young-Ki Kim, Madhabi Majumdar, Bohdan I. Senyuk, Luana Tortora, Jens Seltmann, Matthias Lehmann, Antal Jakli, Jim T. Gleeson, Oleg Lavrentovich, Samuel Sprunt Jul 2012

Search For Biaxiality In A Shape-Persistent Bent-Core Nematic Liquid Crystal, Young-Ki Kim, Madhabi Majumdar, Bohdan I. Senyuk, Luana Tortora, Jens Seltmann, Matthias Lehmann, Antal Jakli, Jim T. Gleeson, Oleg Lavrentovich, Samuel Sprunt

Antal Jakli

Using a range of optical techniques, we have probed the nature of orientational order in a thermotropic bent-core liquid crystal, which features a shape-persistent molecular architecture designed to promote a biaxial nematic phase. In the upper range of the nematic phase (enantiotropic regime), dynamic light scattering reveals strong fluctuations attributable to the biaxial order parameter, in addition to the usual uniaxial director modes. Assuming a Landau-type expansion of the orientational free energy, we estimate the correlation length associated with these fluctuations to be similar to 100 nm. At lower temperatures, and mainly in the monotropic regime of the nematic, we …


Short-Range Smectic Order In Bent-Core Nematic Liquid Crystals, S. H. Hong, R. Verduzco, J. C. Williams, R. J. Twieg, E. Dimasi, R. Pindak, Antal Jakli, J. T. Gleeson, Samuel Sprunt Aug 2010

Short-Range Smectic Order In Bent-Core Nematic Liquid Crystals, S. H. Hong, R. Verduzco, J. C. Williams, R. J. Twieg, E. Dimasi, R. Pindak, Antal Jakli, J. T. Gleeson, Samuel Sprunt

Antal Jakli

Small angle X-ray diffraction from the uniaxial nematic phase of certain bent-core liquid crystals is shown to be consistent with the presence of molecular clusters possessing short-range tilted smectic (smectic-C) order. Persistence of these clusters throughout the nematic phase, and even into the isotropic state, likely accounts for the unusual macroscopic behavior previously reported in bent-core nematics, including an anomalously large flexoelectric effect (similar to 1000 times that of conventional calamitic nematics), very large orientational and flow viscosities (similar to 10 100 and similar to 100 1000 times, respectively, typical values for calamitics), and an extraordinary flow birefringence observed in …


Biaxiality In A Cyclic Thermotropic Nematic Liquid-Crystal, Jian-Feng Li, V. Percec, Ch. Rosenblatt, Oleg Lavrentovich Jan 1994

Biaxiality In A Cyclic Thermotropic Nematic Liquid-Crystal, Jian-Feng Li, V. Percec, Ch. Rosenblatt, Oleg Lavrentovich

Oleg Lavrentovich

Birefringence and textural data are presented for a ring-shaped trimeric liquid crystal. The material apparently undergoes a uniaxial-to-biaxial nematic phase transition as a function of temperature.