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Updated: Oct 3, 2026

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
Temperature dependence of the coefficient of electronic polarizability in calamitic nematic liquid crystals
J R Pereira1, A M Mansanares, A J Palangana
1Departamento de Física, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Avenida Colombo, 5790, 87020-900 Maringá, PR, Brazil.
Abstract:
In this report the temperature dependence of the coefficient of electronic polarizability (straight phi(i)) is determined by means of the thermal expansion coefficient (beta) and ordinary/extraordinary refractive indexes measurements near the calamitic nematic-isotropic phase transition in a lyotropic mixture of sodium decylsulphonate, decanol, and water. These parameters (straight phi(i) and beta) were related to the extraordinary and ordinary refractive indexes via the temperature derivative of the Vuks's equation. The results showed that near the nematic-isotropic phase transition, the measured value of straight phi(i) was found to be about two orders of magnitude smaller than that obtained for thermotropic, showing a remarkable difference in the molecular electronic polarizability strength between lyotropic and thermotropic liquid crystals.
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