Critical and multicritical fluctuations of nematic liquid crystals

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Abstract
The strong light scattering of a nematic liquid crystal is not necessarily only the result of director fluctuations. The director modes are just two of the five fluctuating modes of a nematic liquid crystal. The other three modes may also show strong scattering, comparable to or even larger than those of the director modes, in the vicinities of the certain critical and multicritical points obtainable in a nematic liquid crystal. We calculate in a unified approach and within a mean-field approximation the strength of the fluctuations of all five modes in a variety of circumstances, including critical, tricritical, and Landau multicritical points. Important information regarding these phase transitions can be learned by observing all five modes. © 1996 The American Physical Society.