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Abstract
The dynamical behavior of liquid crystal 8CB containing 2% of dispersed silica particles was investigated using photon correlation spectroscopy. The behavior differs from the one observed in the bulk. Near the phase transition from the nematic to the smectic A phase the orientational fluctuations of nematic director are drastically slower than in the bulk and this strongly resembles the observations in liquid crystals embedded in silica aerogel. The phase transition from the nematic to the isotropic phase is less affected by the presence of the silica particles but also in this case a few tenth of degree below the phase transition temperature a slowing down of the orientational fluctuations was observed.
