ABSTRACT
Pretransitional phenomena have been studied in the isotropic phase of a eutectic nematic E120. This system was found to exhibit a broad ∼8°C biphasic region and both the electro-optic Kerr effect and thermo-optic analysis have been carried out to examine the influence of this biphasic region on the pretransitional behaviour. The results show that the existence of a biphasic region appears to have no influence on the pretransitional behaviour which shows a good correlation with Landau-de Gennes theory from TNI to at least 20°C above the transition. The results are discussed in comparison with alkyl and alkyloxy cyanobiphenyls and in terms of the short range molecular ordering present in these systems.