Temperature behaviour of a liquid crystal comb polymer: Light scattering and noise of the scattered light

Abstract

Measurements of the intensity of the monochromatic light transmitted through and scattered by a comb polymer with a polyacrylamide main chain were performed between room temperature and the isotropization temperature of the polymer. The stationary noise of the light scattered at low angle was measured in the same temperature interval. The transmitted intensity is observed to increase strongly above the smectic S_I2 -S_c2 transition, where the intensity of the light scattered at low angles is maximized. The power dissipated by the molecular fluctuations dramatically increases above the transition between the two smectic phases. The spectral density curves display a Lorentzian character only below the S_I2 -S_c2 transition. At higher temperatures, a more complex frequency behaviour of the stationary noise spectra is observed. Such a behaviour is interpreted in terms of a model explicitly invoking the effect of the Brownian movement of segments of the main chain (backbone) of the polymer on the side chain fluctuations. The parameters governing the Brownian movements of both main and side chains, and their evolution with temperature, are determined and discussed in the light of a simple structural model.