Observation of “de Vries-like” properties in bent-core molecules
Supreet Kaur, Abinash Barthakur, Golam Mohiuddin, Santosh Prasad Gupta, Surajit Dhara, Santanu Kumar Pal
Abstract
) derived from the temperature-dependent SAXS data, followed the power law with exponent values 0.29 ± 0.01 and 0.25 ± 0.01 for compounds 1/10 and 1/12, respectively. The experimental values obtained were very close to the theoretically predicted values for the materials with de Vries-like properties. The analysis of temperature-dependent birefringence studies based on the prediction of the Landau theory, showed a dip across the SmA-SmC phase transition typical of compounds exhibiting the de Vries characteristics. The collective results obtained suggest "de Vries" SmA as a probable model for this bent-core system which may find applications in displays.