Light-Scattering Study of Thermotropic Liquid Crystals and Micellar Solutions

Abstract

The accurate dynamic and static light-scattering study of pretransitional phenomena in the isotropic phase of liquid crystals and in the micellar phase of amphiphilic solutions was carried out. It was shown that the existence of the smectic ordering affects the susceptibility behaviour in the isotropic phase. In the vicinity of the micellar solution critical point there is a single characteristic length as well as in ordinary binary mixtures in spite of the large polydispersity of the amphiphilic molecules.

Keywords:

• light-scattering
• nematic-isotropic transition