Terahertz spectroscopy across liquid crystalline phase transitions

Using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy we investigate the far-infrared properties of liquid crystal CE8 which exhibits a plethora of phases upon variation of the temperature. Phase transitions that are correlated with structural ordering at different dimensions clearly reflect in the terahertz refractive index. On the contrary, phase transitions related to ordering phenomena within a certain group of phases do not lead to significant steps in the n(T) relation. Nevertheless, we additionally demonstrate that also 2nd order phase transitions, like the SmA*-SmC* phase change, can be resolved by THz spectroscopy.

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