Abstract
Measurements are presented of the intensity and lifetime of Rayleigh light scattered from thermally excited twist and splay modes of $p$-cyanobenzylidine-$p\ensuremath{-}n$-octyloxyaniline (CBOOA) in the nematic phase near the smectic $A$---nematic phase transition. The temperature dependence of the twist and splay elastic constants and viscosities are deduced. The phase transition is continuous (${T}_{c}\ensuremath{-}{T}^{*}<3\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$ mK); this contradicts the prediction of Halperin, Lubensky, and Ma that this phase transition would be weakly first order. The critical behavior of the twist elastic constant ${K}_{22}$ and the twist viscosity ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{1}$ is consistent with mean-field predictions from 3\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}mK to 7\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K above the transition; these data are inconsistent with the critical behavior predicted by the helium analogy. The splay mode is not renormalized, as expected.
Keywords
TwistLiquid crystalPhysicsPhase transitionOrder (exchange)Excited statePhase (matter)Condensed matter physicsMathematical physicsQuantum mechanicsMathematicsGeometry
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Publication Info
- Year
- 1975
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 1059-1067
- Citations
- 45
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Kuo‐Chung Chu,
W. L. McMillan
(1975).
Static and dynamic behavior near a second-order smectic<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>A</mml:mi></mml:math>— nematic phase transition by light scattering.
Physical review. A, General physics
, 11
(3)
, 1059-1067.
https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.11.1059
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1103/physreva.11.1059