DOI

The Landau-de Gennes model for the free energy of a nematic liquid crystal near the phase transition to the smectic A-phase is used to determine the frequency dependence of the fluctuation corrections to the Frank elastic constants. It is shown that the interaction of the fluctuations of the smectic order parameter and the director results in corrections to all the Frank elastic constants. In the low-frequency limit (ω→0), the corrections to the Frank elastic constants K22 and K33 are the largest, and decrease to zero in the infinite-frequency limit. The correction to K11 is negative, and vanishes in both limits. The absolute value of the correction to K11 is the largest at frequencies in the megahertz range. It is shown that in oriented ncmatics the interaction of the smectic fluctuations and the director limits deviations of the director from the direction of preferred orientation, as a result of which relaxation of both inhomogeneous and homogeneous distortions of the director field can be observed. It is also shown that this gives rise to a frequency interval in the megahertz range in which shear waves begin to propagate in the nematic. The propagation speed of these waves is roughly a hundred times smaller than that of sound and strongly depends on the direction of propagation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1098-1104
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics
Volume87
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1998

    Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

ID: 76496288