Issue |
EPL
Volume 103, Number 4, August 2013
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 46004 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Condensed Matter: Structural, Mechanical and Thermal Properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/103/46004 | |
Published online | 17 September 2013 |
Alloy hardening of a smectic A liquid crystal doped with gold nanoparticles
1 Université de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Laboratoire de Physique, UMR 5672 of the CNRS 46 Allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France, EU
2 Center for Self- Assembled Chemical Structures (CSACS), Chemistry Department, McGill University 801 Sherbrooke St. West, Montreal, Canada H3A 2K6
3 Institut de Chimie de Clermont- Ferrand, UMR 6296, Université Blaise Pascal and CNRS 24 avenue des Landais, 63171 Aubière cedex, France, EU
4 Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences - Na Slovance 2, 182 21 Prague 8, Czech Republic, EU
Received: 22 July 2013
Accepted: 23 August 2013
We measure the mobility of edge dislocations in a smectic A liquid crystal doped with gold nanoparticles. The mobility is found to decrease when the concentration of nanoparticles increases, which leads to a hardening of the smectic phase. It is found that the closer the temperature to the nematic phase, the weaker the hardening. The critical behavior of the mobility near the smectic A-to-nematic transition temperature is also investigated and compared to theoretical predictions.
PACS: 61.30.Jf – Defects in liquid crystals / 83.80.Xz – Liquid crystals: nematic, cholesteric, smectic, discotic, etc. / 81.40.Cd – Solid solution hardening, precipitation hardening, and dispersion hardening; aging
© EPLA, 2013
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