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Abstract
As a humble contribution to this special commemorative issue to Professor Alfred Saupe, we present an experimental study on the critical behaviour of the nematic-to-isotropic (N–I) and smectic A-to-nematic (SmA–N) phase transitions of the liquid crystal 4-nonyloxy-4′-cyanobiphenyl (9OCB). Measurements of the specific heat and the dielectric permittivity were performed for bulk 9OCB as well as for 9OCB confined to Anopore membranes, and the influence of the slight-restrictive confinement was analysed. The possibility of driving the weakly first-order SmA–N phase transition to second-order in nature by means of the confinement was confirmed.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful for financial support from the MICINN of Spain (Projects MAT2009–14636–C03–02, –03 and MAT2008–01372), from the MEC (MAT2006–13571– C02–02), from the Universidad del País Vasco (Project 9/UPV060.310–13562/2001), and from the Gobierno del País Vasco (GI–C07–40–IT–484–07). We also acknowledge recognition as an emergent research group (AGAUR–2009– SGR–1243) of the Generalitat de Catalunya Government, and support from the Department of Physics, the Liquid Crystal Institute, and the College of Arts and Sciences, at Kent State University, USA.
One of us (DF) is indebted to the National Science Foundation and the Division of Materials Research for their support through an IRD.
The opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.