https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050509
Smectic A-Cholesteric liquid crystal phase transition: A density study
1
Departamento de Física,Universidade Estadual de
Maringá, 87020-900 Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
2
Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, Caixa Postal
66318, 05315-970 São Paulo, Brazil
Corresponding author: a palanga@dfi.uem.br
Received:
25
May
1998
Revised:
27
July
1998
Accepted:
7
August
1998
Published online: 15 October 1998
The present work is focused on density measurements near the smectic
A-cholesteric liquid crystal phase transition for cholesteryl myristate 
, cholesteryl nonanoate 
and binary mixtures of 
and
and cholesteryl caproate 
and . The results have evidenced
that the transition crosses over from first to second order when both the
mean molecular length and the reduced temperature, r (ratio between the
smectic A-cholesteric and cholesteric-isotropic phase transition
temperatures), decrease in the system. The occurrence of a second order
phase transition is observed for a concentration very near 63.1 molar
percent of in the 
mixture at r
.
PACS: 61.30.Eb – Experimental determinations of smectic, nematic, cholesteric, and other structures / 64.70.Md – Transitions in liquid crystals
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1998
