N-SmA-SmC phase transitions probed by a pair of elastically bound colloids

Abstract

The competing effect of surface anchoring of dispersed micro particles and elasticity of kinematic and choleric liquid crystals has been shown to stabilize a variety of topological defects. Here we study a pair of colloidal micro particles with homeopathic and planar surface anchoring across N-S Ma-Sm C phase transitions. We show that below the S Ma-Sm C phase transition the temperature dependence of inter particle separation (D) of colloids with homeopathic anchoring shows a power-law behavior; D∼(1-T/T_{AC})^{α}, with an exponent α≈0.5. For colloids with planar surface anchoring the angle between the joining line of the centers of the two colloids and the far field director shows characteristic variation elucidating the phase transitions.