ISBN 9783843910262

978-3-8439-1026-2, Reihe Physikalische Chemie

Alberto Sánchez Castillo
Polarized micro-Raman spectroscopy: A modern technique to study the molecular orientational order of nematic and smectic liquid crystals

204 Seiten, Dissertation Universität Stuttgart (2013), Softcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

Liquid crystals (LCs) are orientationally ordered fluids and a prime example of functional soft matter materials. A full description and improvement of LC materials requires an understanding of their intrinsic molecular order.

This work is focused on the potential of polarized micro-Raman spectroscopy (PRS) as a new experimental tool to elucidate the orientational order in nematic as well as in the so-called de Vries smectic LCs. Primarily, the investigations are devoted to find physical differences in molecular order between de Vries and conventional smectics. This ambitious aim is achieved determining the nontrivial order parameter of fourth order using PRS and for reasons of comparison X-ray diffraction. These investigations show an interesting and convincing result for de Vries smectics.