Corresponding states in the smectic-A phase

ABSTRACT

In the last few years, experimental data of many different sources has been gathered to show that order parameter curves of essentially all nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) compounds can be reduced to a single and universal curve of the corresponding states; experimental data of an impressive number of different nematic compounds has been linearly rescaled in such a way that all them coalesced in a single curve. The surprising novelty observed on NLCs is that this universal behaviour is not restricted to the neighbourhoods of a critical region, as is usually expected from critical phenomena, but it covers the entire domain of the nematic phase, from the nematic isotropic temperature to the nematic crystalline temperature. The aim of this paper is to study the statistical mechanics fundamentals of this behaviour and show that it is a consequence of the universality of the angular part of the potential of the interaction between the particles composing the liquid crystal (LC). We will illustrate this behaviour presenting evidences that it can be found on the smectic-A phase.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Liquid crystals
• global universalities
• critical phenomena
• phase transitions

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Brazilian Agencies Coordenacao de Aper-feicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES), Fundacao Araucaria (Parana), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientfico e Tecnologico (CNPq) and Universidade Tecnologica Federal do Paraná for financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.