Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 44, Number 3, November I 1998
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 296 - 301 | |
Section | Condensed matter: structure, thermal and mechanical properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i1998-00473-7 | |
Published online | 01 September 2002 |
Evidence for a nematic-nematic transition in thin cells of a highly polar compound
Raman Research Institute, C. V. Raman Avenue - Bangalore 560080, India
Received:
23
April
1998
Accepted:
11
September
1998
We report experimental evidence for a weak first-order nematic-nematic
transition in thin
–
) cells of the strongly polar
nematogen, p-cyanophenyl p-n heptylbenzoate. The transition temperature
TNN
increases as the thickness of the cell decreases indicating that,
in the bulk, this
transition may occur at temperatures well below the ambient one.
Optical and dielectric measurements of
the order parameters in thin cells show that there is considerable
enhancement compared to the bulk values.
TNN can be increased significantly by moderate electric
and magnetic fields. The transition
probably indicates a jump in the concentration of neighbours
with antiparallel configurations compared to those with parallel
configurations. The results imply that the
order parameter coherence length in the compound is relatively large.
PACS: 61.30.-v – Liquid crystals / 64.70.Md – Transitions in liquid crystals / 78.20.Fm – Birefringence
© EDP Sciences, 1998
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