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High-resolution birefringence study at the nematic-smectic A phase transition of ZnS nano particle dispersed octyloxycyanobiphenyl

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Abstract

We have studied the effect of ZnS nano particles with different concentrations on the nematic to smectic A (N-SmA) phase transition of a thermotropic liquid crystal octyloxycyanobiphenyl (8OCB). These effects are probed using a high resolution optical birefringence measurement. A decreasing trend of the nematic range of 8OCB has been observed up to a certain limit with increasing concentrations of the guest nano particles. A simple power law analysis has been carried out to extract the critical exponent (α) at the N-SmA phase transition, which allows one to investigate the critical behaviour near the phase transition as well as the universality class. The critical exponent (α) at the N-SmA phase transition strongly indicates the change in the coupling strength between the nematic and smectic A order parameters.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, North Bengal University, 734 013, Siliguri, West Bengal, India

    Malay Kumar Das & Sudipta Kumar Sarkar

  2. Department of Physics, Raiganj University College, 733 134, Raiganj, West Bengal, India

    Purna Chandra Barman

Authors
  1. Malay Kumar Das
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  2. Purna Chandra Barman
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  3. Sudipta Kumar Sarkar
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Correspondence to Malay Kumar Das.

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Das, M., Barman, P. & Sarkar, S. High-resolution birefringence study at the nematic-smectic A phase transition of ZnS nano particle dispersed octyloxycyanobiphenyl. Eur. Phys. J. B 88, 175 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2015-60202-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2015-60202-7

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