A nematic phase created in mixtures of polar smectics The effect of smectic layer properties

Abstract

Abstract Phase diagrams of binary mixtures composed of compounds with the NCS terminal group (n-DBT, n-PBT, n-TPB (smectic A1) or n-BT (smectic E1)) and n-OCB, n-CB (smectics Ad) are presented. It is shown that the width of the nematic gap that separates the A1 or E1 phase region from the smectic Ad phase is related to the interaction energy of the molecules in the smectic layers and to the difference in the smectic layer spacings.