A diffraction and spectroscopic study of the solid states of EBBA

Abstract

The solid states and phase transitions were studied in the nematogen EBBA. Differential scanning calorimetry, neutron diffraction and Raman scattering provided well-correlated results on the structure and dynamics of the solid phases. It was concluded that (a) EBBA has four different solid phases, (b) there is a difference between the dynamics, viz. the coherence length of phonons in the rapidly-cooled phases of MBBA and EBBA, (c) the molecular shape in the nematic phase can be determined by using the solid state structures.