Fluctuations near a phase transition in liquid crystals

Thomas Moses, Jason Reeves and Paulo Pirondi

Citation: American Journal of Physics 75, 220 (2007); doi: 10.1119/1.2410017

View online: https://doi.org/10.1119/1.2410017
View Table of Contents: https://aapt.scitation.org/toc/ajp/75/3
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers

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Fluctuations near a phase transition in liquid crystals
Thomas Moses,a兲 Jason Reeves, and Paulo Pirondi
Department of Physics, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois 61401
共Received 26 June 2006; accepted 17 November 2006兲
The increase in molecular orientational fluctuations as a phase transition is approached is an
interesting and dramatic phenomenon, but associated undergraduate experiments are rare. We
present an advanced undergraduate experiment on light scattering from the molecular orientational
fluctuations in liquid crystals. In the high-temperature, disordered phase of a liquid crystal, small
clusters of parallel-oriented molecules form spontaneously and scatter light. The size of the
fluctuations and the consequent light scattering increase dramatically as the temperature is reduced
approaching the weakly first-order phase transition to the ordered liquid crystal phase. We discuss
a simplified theory that captures the essential physics. © 2007 American Association of Physics Teachers.
关DOI: 10.1119/1.2410017兴

I. INTRODUCTION strong increase in light scattering due to density fluctuations

The statistical mechanics of phase transitions is an excit-
ing area of contemporary research, but is not well repre-
sented in typical undergraduate laboratory curricula. We de-
scribe an undergraduate experiment in which the fluctuations
near a phase transition in a liquid crystal are important. The
experimental apparatus is inexpensive and the experiment is
not technically difficult or lengthy to perform. The choice of
liquid crystals as a system to investigate pretransitional fluc-
tuations is convenient because of their large, easily detect-
able fluctuations and near room temperature phase transition.
A liquid crystal is composed of rod-like molecules. At
high temperatures, the molecular rods point in random direc-
tions and the liquid is isotropic. As the temperature is low-
ered there occurs a transition to the nematic phase, where the
rods align approximately parallel to each other 共see Fig. 1兲.
The phase transition to the orientationally ordered nematic
phase results from anisotropic interactions between neigh-
boring molecules. Our experiment measures the intensity of
light scattered from the high-temperature isotropic phase as
the temperature approaches the nematic phase. In the isotro-
pic phase, random fluctuations of the molecular orientations
cause the temporary formation of microscopic domains of
parallel-oriented molecules that scatter light, because the
nematic-like domains are birefringent and optically distinct
from the average isotropic background. As the temperature
approaches the isotropic-nematic transition temperature TNI,
the number and size of the nematic-like domains grow. This
growth is due to the fact that near the phase transition, the
free energies of isotropic and nematic ordering become com-
parable, so the free energy cost of a nematic-like fluctuation
is reduced. Consequently, the probability of a nematic-like
fluctuation is increased near the phase transition.1
The increase in nematic-like fluctuations near the phase
transition affects various properties of the liquid crystal, such
as its heat capacity, viscosity, and its ability to scatter light.2,3
To understand the effect on light scattering, we note that the
size of the nematic-like domains typically increases from a
few molecular lengths to a few tens of molecular lengths as
the phase transition is approached. As the size of the domains
increases 共though remaining much smaller than the optical
wavelength兲, the scattering efficiency increases and we ob-
serve a strong temperature dependence of the light scattering
intensity. This increased scattering is analogous to critical
opalescence at the liquid-gas phase transition, which is a
in the high-temperature gas phase near the critical point. In a
liquid crystal it is molecular orientational fluctuations rather
than density fluctuations that cause the light scattering, but
the essential physics is similar.
Several experiments involving light scattering4–6 and two
papers involving critical phenomena in liquid crystals have
appeared recently.7,8 The advantages of the light scattering
experiment reported here is the simplicity of the experimen-
tal apparatus and the convenience of liquid crystal samples.
The pretransitional fluctuations in the liquid crystal are a
straightforward but interesting application of the statistical
mechanics of fluctuations, making the experiment ideal for
an advanced laboratory experiment.
II. FLUCTUATIONS IN LIQUID CRYSTALS
A. Order parameter and Landau free energy
We present a brief, simplified analysis of the temperature-
dependence of fluctuations in a liquid crystal. Our approach
follows Collings and Hird,9 who provide more details. A
more rigorous treatment of the fluctuations in a liquid crystal
must take into account their tensor character. An especially
clear treatment is given in the text by Vertogen and de Jeu.3
Phase transitions, including the orientational transition in
liquid crystals, can be described quantitatively by an order
parameter, which is zero in the disordered 共isotropic兲 phase
and nonzero in the ordered 共nematic兲 phase. We define the
order parameter S as
S = 具 21 共3 cos2 共␪兲 − 1兲典 , 共1兲
where ␪ is the angle between an axis of a rod-like molecule
and the local average direction of the rods 共called the direc-
tor兲; the brackets indicate an average over a region contain-
ing many molecules. In all known nematic liquid crystals,
␪ = 0 is equivalent to ␪ = ␲; the nematic phase has overall
“head-tail” symmetry, even though the individual molecules
usually do not. It can be readily checked that S = 0 in the
isotropic phase and S = 1 in a perfectly aligned nematic
phase.10
We next consider a simple model for a second-order phase
transition1 due to Landau, modified to describe the isotropic-
nematic transition in liquid crystals by de Gennes.2 In the
Landau–de Gennes picture, the Gibbs free energy g per unit
volume in the isotropic phase is represented as a power series
in the order parameter S and its spatial derivatives:

220 Am. J. Phys. 75 共3兲, March 2007 http://aapt.org/ajp © 2007 American Association of Physics Teachers 220
 where S共x兲 represents the varying order parameter in the
sample, is given by

P共S兲 ⬀ exp 共− 共Gtot − Go兲/kBT兲, 共6兲

where Gtot is given by Eq. 共4兲 and Go = goV, with V = AoL the
sample volume.
We proceed by expanding the order parameter S共x兲 in a
Fourier series,

S共x兲 = 兺 S共q兲 exp 共iqx兲, 共7兲

q

Fig. 1. Isotropic 共a兲 and nematic 共b兲 phases. The rods represent molecules; where the sum over q runs over the values q = 2␲n / L for n
the shortened rods represent molecules pointing into or out of the page. = 0 , ± 1 , ± 2 , . . . and S共q兲 represents the Fourier coefficients.

冉 冊
Although S共x兲 is a real function, the Fourier coefficients S共q兲
2
dS are in general complex and are given by
g = go + AS2 + B . 共2兲

冕
dx L
1
Here go, A, and B are material-dependent constants, indepen- S共q兲 = dxS共x兲 exp 共− iqx兲. 共8兲
L 0
dent of S, but possibly functions of temperature and pressure.
Because S is small in the isotropic phase 共zero, if not for From Eq. 共8兲 we see that S共−q兲 = S共q兲*, where * denotes the
fluctuations兲, the series expansion of g is truncated after the complex conjugate. If we substitute the Fourier series of Eq.
first few terms. There is no term linear in S because the free 共7兲 into Eq. 共2兲 and calculate the free energy Gtot of Eq. 共4兲,
energy g共S兲 is a minimum at S = 0 in the isotropic phase. We we find that the S2 term becomes VA兺q 兩 S共q兲兩2, and the
can approximate A by its Taylor expansion as 共dS / dx兲2 term can be written VB兺qq2 兩 S共q兲兩2. We substitute
A = a共T − T*兲, 共3兲 these two terms into Eq. 共6兲 and find
*
where a and T are material-dependent constants and pres-
sure dependence is neglected because the pressure remains
constant in the experiment. The material-dependent constant
P ⬀ exp − 冋 V
兺 兩S共q兲兩2共A + Bq2兲
k BT q 册 共9兲

T* has dimensions of temperature and is usually of the order

of 1 K below the phase transition temperature TNI. The last
term in Eq. 共2兲 expresses the energy cost of a spatial varia-
tion in the order parameter S共x兲. This term might be thought
of as expressing the energy cost of a deformation in analogy
to the potential energy kx2 / 2 of a compressed spring.
In Eq. 共2兲 and in the rest of this paper we will consider a
one-dimensional model and take S = S共x兲 as a function of x
only.9 This approach simplifies the mathematics and pre-
serves the essential physics of the problem. The total free
energy of the sample is given by an integral of the free en-
ergy density:
Gtot = 冕0
L
dxAog共S兲,
where L is the length of the sample and Ao is the cross-
sectional area of the sample.
B. Temperature-dependence of fluctuations
We next consider spontaneous fluctuations of the molecu-
lar orientation in the isotropic phase in a liquid crystal main-
tained at constant temperature and pressure. We focus on a
small volume element ⌬V in which a fluctuation in the mo-
lecular orientations has resulted in a temporary nonzero order
parameter S. A standard result in statistical mechanics gives
the probability P⌬V共S兲 of a fluctuation with order parameter
S in the volume element ⌬V 共Ref. 11兲:
P⌬V共S兲 ⬀ exp 共− 共g共S兲 − go兲⌬V/kBT兲,
where g共S兲 is given by Eq. 共2兲 and kB is Boltzmann’s con-
stant. The overall probability P共S兲 of a fluctuation S共x兲,
for the probability of a fluctuation.
We wish to find an expression for 具兩S共q兲兩2典, the mean
square amplitude of the fluctuations of the order parameter
component with wavenumber q. If we evaluate the desired
mean value from the probability distribution in Eq. 共9兲, we
obtain the result11
k BT k BT
具兩S共q兲兩2典 = 2 = . 共10兲
A + Bq a共T − T*兲 + Bq2
Equation 共10兲 gives the temperature-dependence of the order
parameter fluctuations. Note that as T approaches T*,
共4兲
具兩S共q兲兩2典 increases to a maximum—this pretransitional in-
crease in the order fluctuations is responsible for the ob-
served increase in scattered light intensity as the transition is
approached.12
The intensity I共q兲 of light scattered with scattering
wavevector q 共q is the change in the wavevector of the scat-
tered light兲 is proportional to 具兩S共q兲兩2典. From Eq. 共10兲 we
obtain:
T
I共q兲 ⬀ . 共11兲
a共T − T*兲 + Bq2
A brief derivation of the relation I共q兲 ⬀ 具兩S共q兲兩2典 is given in
the Appendix ; more details may be found in Ref. 3. The
plausibility of the result can be understood by noting that an
order parameter fluctuation involves a local ordering of mol-
共5兲 ecules, and the locally ordered domain comprises an optical
inhomogeneity in an isotropic background, causing the scat-
tering of light. Hence increased fluctuations in the order pa-
rameter should lead to increased scattering of light.

221 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 75, No. 3, March 2007 Moses, Reeves, and Pirondi 221

Fig. 2. Schematic of the optical arrangement. L⫽polarized HeNe laser,
S⫽liquid crystal sample in a thermally-controlled chamber, A⫽aperture,
Le⫽lens, BS⫽beam stop, B⫽barrier for rejecting stray light, PMT
⫽photomultiplier tube detector, DMM⫽digital multimeters, and
C⫽computer.
III. EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS
A. Optical setup and alignment
A diagram of the experimental arrangement is shown in
Fig. 2. A linearly polarized helium-neon laser 共2 mW兲 was
used as the light source. The sample cell is a sealed glass
tube containing a liquid crystal and is housed in a homemade
thermally controlled chamber. Light transmitted through the
sample without scattering is allowed to propagate 1 m from
the sample before being blocked to minimize light scattered
back to the detector. Light scattered from the sample at 90°
passes through an aperture and is collected by a lens 共10 cm
focal length兲 and focused on a photomultiplier tube detector.
The aperture selects light scattered from the liquid crystal
sample and rejects light scattered from the sides of the exit
orifice of the sample chamber housing or other extraneous
sources. A black cloth barrier was placed around the detector
to reject stray light from sources other than the liquid crystal
sample. The experiment was done in a dark room with care
taken to minimize sources of stray light. Optionally, a laser-
line filter mounted at the entrance aperture of the photode-
tector can be used to reject stray light at frequencies other
than the laser frequency. The detector output voltage was
measured using a high quality voltmeter interfaced to a com-
puter. Another option is to chop the laser beam and use a
lock-in amplifier as a detector. In combination with a laser-
line filter, lock-in detection makes the experiment essentially
insensitive to stray light and allows the room lights to be on.
The vertical polarization direction 共perpendicular to the
scattering plane兲 of the incident light was chosen primarily
for purposes of reproducibility. The use of a polarized laser
is convenient because polarization fluctuations in an unpolar-
ized laser may cause undesired fluctuations in scattered light
intensity.
B. Sample materials and sample cell
In our experiments the liquid crystal material was en-
closed in a small piece of circular glass tubing and housed in
a thermally controlled chamber. The tubing dimensions were
3.2 mm 共inner diameter兲 ⫻25 mm long. The tube was sealed
with homemade aluminum caps epoxied in place. After the
bottom end of the tube is sealed, the tube can be conve-
niently filled with liquid crystal using a syringe. A few mil-
limeters of air space should be left at the top of the tube to
allow for thermal expansion of the liquid crystal as the
sample temperature is changed. If necessary, the top surface
of the tube should be cleaned carefully before sealing the top
222 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 75, No. 3, March 2007
Fig. 3. Molecular structure of 5 CB.
cap with epoxy because traces of liquid crystal will prevent a
secure epoxy bond; a cotton swab dipped in acetone is effec-
tive, though care is needed to avoid contaminating the liquid
crystal sample with acetone.
The use of round glass tubing is convenient and inexpen-
sive, but in some respects not ideal for a high-precision ex-
periment, because the round sample acts as a strong cylindri-
cal lens of the scattered light and the less than optical quality
glass surfaces may backscatter more light than precision op-
tical surfaces would. In our experiments, these effects were
not significant and the data agreed well with theoretical pre-
dictions. We also used precision miniature square cuvettes
with flat sides of high-optical-quality glass to avoid the lens-
ing effect and minimize backscattering from the glass cell,
and obtained essentially identical data.
In our experiments we used the liquid crystal
4⬘-n-pentyl-4-cyanobiphenyl 共5CB兲 共see Fig. 3兲.13 5CB has
become a standard liquid crystal for experiments due to its
chemical stability, low cost, thoroughly tabulated physical
properties, and conveniently accessible isotropic-nematic
transition temperature 共35.0 ° C兲. Our sealed sample tubes
have shown no degradation in 3 years.
It is necessary to control the temperature of the liquid
crystal sample during the experiment. The simplest approach
is to house the sample tube in a hole drilled in a copper block
共chosen for its high thermal conductivity and heat capacity兲.
The copper block will need additional holes for the incident
and transmitted light beams and the scattered beam 共we
chose to measure the light scattered at 90°兲 and to accom-
modate a heating resistor14 and a thermistor15 for measuring
the temperature 共see Fig. 4兲. The copper block is heated to
the desired highest temperature and allowed to decrease
freely through the isotropic-nematic transition while the tem-
perature and scattered light intensity data are recorded. For
the 750 g copper block we used, the temperature decreased
at a rate of ⬃1 ° C / min while a computer acquired the resis-
tance data from a digital multimeter connected to the ther-
mistor. An alternative approach is to actively control the
sample temperature with feedback; a simple and inexpensive
controller for this purpose is described in Ref. 7. Unlike
many experiments on critical phenomena, highly accurate
Fig. 4. Top view of the sample cell and thermally controlled housing.
S⫽sample tube, H⫽heater resistor, and T⫽thermistor. Note the access ports
for the incident beam, the unscattered beam, and the light scattered at 90°.
Moses, Reeves, and Pirondi 222

Fig. 5. Scattered light intensity versus temperature. Note the strong increase
in light scattered by the fluctuations as the isotropic liquid crystal is cooled
toward the isotropic-nematic transition.
temperature control is not required for this experiment be-
cause the light scattering intensity is easily measured up to
10 ° C from the phase transition; temperature precision as
crude as ±0.1 ° C would suffice. Regardless of the method
used to vary the sample temperature, it is important to mea-
sure all temperatures relative to the observed phase transition
temperature. This procedure will 共mostly兲 compensate for
errors such as a possible offset in the thermometer calibra-
tion or a temperature differential between the measuring
thermometer and the liquid crystal sample.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Experimental data were collected by measuring the inten-
sity of scattered light and the sample temperature as the iso-
tropic liquid crystal sample temperature approached the
isotropic-nematic phase transition from above. A sample of
the raw data 共light intensity versus temperature兲 is shown in
Fig. 5. The sharp pretransitional increase in the light scatter-
ing due to nematic-like fluctuations can be clearly seen. The
transition temperature TNI was clearly identifiable as the in-
tensity of scattered light increased by more than an order of
magnitude as the sample changed from isotropic to a multi-
domain nematic.
We can replot the data to make a convenient comparison
with the theoretical prediction of Eq. 共11兲. The term Bq2 in
the denominator of Eq. 共11兲 is negligible for our experimen-
tal conditions. To determine its magnitude, we evaluate
Bq2 / a共T − T*兲 at the minimum attainable isotropic-phase
temperature T = TNI = 35.0 ° C. If we use q = ki − k f , q
= 2ki sin 共␪ / 2兲 for elastic scattering 共ki = k f 兲, and ␪ = 90° and
ki = 2␲ / ␭ with ␭ = 633 nm for the HeNe laser, we find q
= 14.0 ␮m−1. The published values for the material constants
of 5CB are a = 6.0⫻ 104 JK−1 m−3 and
16,17
−12
B = 4.6⫻ 10 J / m, soBq2 / a共T − T*兲 = 0.01Ⰶ 1, justify-
ing the neglect of the Bq2 term.
We can then rewrite Eq. 共11兲 as
T/I = k共T − T*兲 = k共␧ − ␧*兲, 共12兲
where k is a constant of proportionality, ␧ = T − TNI, and ␧*
= T* − TNI. We have expressed the temperatures on the right-
hand side relative to the observed phase transition tempera-
ture TNI, which provides a convenient correction for possible
offsets in the thermometry. Equation 共12兲 predicts that a plot
223 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 75, No. 3, March 2007
Fig. 6. A plot of T / I versus T shows the linear dependence predicted by the
Landau-de Gennes theory, Eq. 共11兲. The values of the free energy parameter
T* = 1.6± 0.2 ° C was determined from the slope and intercept values of the
plot.
of T / I versus ␧ will be linear, with T* given by
T* = TNI − b/m, 共13兲
where m and b are fit parameters 共slope and intercept兲. The
data and linear fit are shown in Fig. 6. The good agreement is
consistent with the theory of order parameter fluctuations in
liquid crystals we have described. For the best fit values m
= 6.67± 3% and b = 10.9± 20%, Eq. 共13兲 gives T*
= 1.6± 0.2 ° C in reasonable agreement with the published
value of 1.4 ° C.16 Some investigators have reported a small
but significant deviation of the experimental results from the
Landau–de Gennes theory at temperatures near TNI 共within a
few tenths of a degree, depending on the liquid crystal ma-
terial兲 and have explained the discrepancy by the known in-
adequacy of mean-field theory to account fully for the effects
of fluctuations in the vicinity of the phase transition.16 This
inadequacy may explain the small deviation of the data
points in Fig. 6 from the theoretical line at temperatures
within 0.5 ° C of TNI.
V. SUMMARY
Our experiment on light scattering from liquid crystals
introduces students to the physics of fluctuations and phase
transitions. Unlike many experiments on critical phenomena,
sample preparation is easy and expenses are minimal. The
typical results presented here show the dramatic increase in
fluctuations near the phase transition. The experimental re-
sults are well described by the simplified Landau-type theory
of a weakly first-order phase transition, which predicts a
strong pre-transitional increase of the scattered light intensity
as the temperature of the disordered, isotropic phase is
cooled toward the transition to the nematic phase.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Support from the Ford Foundation and the McNair Foun-
dation are gratefully acknowledged.
APPENDIX: ORDER FLUCTUATIONS AND LIGHT
SCATTERING
We present a brief derivation of the relation of the mean
square fluctuations of the order parameter to the light scat-
tering. We define ␦␧, the anisotropic part of the dielectric
tensor of the liquid crystal, as
Moses, Reeves, and Pirondi 223
 ␦␧ = ␧ − ␧iI,
where ␧ is the dielectric tensor, ␧i is the dielectric constant in
the isotropic phase, and I is the identity matrix. We note that
␦␧ vanishes in the isotropic phase in the absence of fluctua-
tions and a nonzero ␦␧ describes a nematic-like fluctuation.
For a nematic-like region in a uniaxially birefringent liquid
crystal, the dielectric tensor is given by
冢 冣
␧⬜
␧= ␧⬜ , 共A2兲
␧储
where the local director 共direction of the rod-like molecules兲
is along the z-axis and ␧⬜ and ␧储 are the components of the
dielectric tensor perpendicular and parallel to the director.
The dielectric constant in the isotropic phase can be written
as ␧i = 31 共2␧⬜ + ␧储兲, so by combining Eqs. 共A1兲 and 共A2兲 we
obtain
冢 冣
− 1
3
␦␧ = ⌬␧ − 1
3 ,
2
3
where ⌬␧ = ␧储 − ␧⬜ is the dielectric anisotropy. In an arbitrary
coordinate system, we can find the new form of ␦␧ by ap-
plying appropriate rotation matrices, but it is clear from Eq.
共A3兲 that each component of ␦␧ remains proportional to ⌬␧:
␦␧ ⬀ ⌬␧.
We will next show that ⌬␧ is proportional to the scalar
order parameter S defined in Eq. 共1兲:
⌬␧ ⬀ S = 具 21 共3 cos2共␪兲 − 1兲典 .
Equation 共A5兲 is plausible because ⌬␧ = 0 and S = 0 in the
isotropic phase in the absence of fluctuations, and ⌬␧ ⫽ 0 and
S⫽ 0 in an orientationally ordered, birefringent nematic
phase 共or within a nematic-like fluctuation in the isotropic
phase兲. We define the molecular polarizability tensor ␣ for a
single molecule, approximated as a cylindrically symmetric
rod oriented along the z-axis:
冢 冣
␣⬜
␣= ␣⬜ . 共A6兲
␣储
We can find the average molecular polarizability tensor 具␣典
for a collection of molecules by expressing Eq. 共A6兲 in a
coordinate system rotated by Euler angles ␾, ␪, ␺ 共about the
original z-axis, the new x-axis, and the final z-axis, in suc-
cession兲 and then averaging over angles:18
具␣典 = 具R␺R␪R␾␣R␾−1R␪−1R␺−1典,
where R represents a rotation matrix and the brackets indi-
cate the average over angles ␾, ␪, ␺. The result is
具␣xx典 = 具␣yy典 = 具 21 共1 + cos2 ␪兲典␣⬜ + 具 21 sin2 ␪典␣储 , 共A8a兲
具␣zz典 = 具sin2 ␪典␣⬜ + 具cos2 ␪典␣储 共A8b兲
with the off-diagonal elements vanishing. The polarization P
of the medium is given by
224 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 75, No. 3, March 2007
共A1兲 P = n具␣典E = ␧o␹eE, 共A9兲
where n is the number of molecules per unit volume, E is the
electric field, and ␹e is the electric susceptibility tensor. As
usual, the dielectric tensor ␧ is given by
D = ␧ o␧ E with ␧ = I + ␹e . 共A10兲
If we combine Eqs. 共A8兲–共A10兲, we obtain
n n
⌬␧ = ␧zz − ␧xx = 共具␣zz典 − 具␣xx典兲 = 共␣储 − ␣⬜兲
␧o ␧o
⫻具 21 共3 cos2 ␪ − 1兲典 ⬀ S, 共A11兲
which justifies Eq. 共A5兲.
There is a subtle problem in our discussion: the electric
field in the middle equality of Eq. 共A9兲 is the microscopic,
internal field seen by one molecule 共the sum of the external
applied field and the field produced by molecular dipole mo-
ments other than the molecule under observation兲, whereas
the field in the rightmost equality of Eq. 共A9兲 and in Eq.
共A10兲 is the average macroscopic field in the medium.
A detailed calculation of the internal field in a system of
共A3兲 interacting dipoles is difficult and approximations must be
made. The effect of the most commonly used approximate
treatments is only to change the proportionality constant in
Eq. 共A11兲, and thus the proportionality relation remains
valid.19
The intensity of light scattering can be related to fluctua-
tions of the dielectric tensor. Specifically, the Fourier com-
ponent I共q兲 of the intensity of light scattered with wavevec-
共A4兲
tor q is given by
Iif 共q兲 ⬀ 具兩␦␧if 共q兲兩2典. 共A12兲
Here i and f represent the incident and final polarization
共A5兲 directions and q = ki − k f is the scattering wavevector, with ki
and k f representing the wavevectors of the incident and scat-
tered radiation. An accessible derivation of Eq. 共A12兲 is
given in Ref. 20. Because the proportionality in Eq. 共A12兲
holds regardless of the polarization states, we may drop the
subscripts. Finally, we combine Eqs. 共A4兲, 共A5兲, and 共A12兲
and find
I共q兲 ⬀ 具兩S共q兲兩2典, 共A13兲
justifying the result in Eq. 共11兲.
a兲
Electronic mail: tmoses@knox.edu
1
The isotropic-nematic transition in liquid crystals is a weak first-order
transition, with an very small latent heat 关1.42 J / g for 5CB 共Ref. 16兲,
compared to, for instance, 333 J / g for water兴, which is why pretransi-
tional fluctuations are so prominent.
2
P. G. de Gennes, “Short range order effects in the isotropic phase of
nematics and cholesterics,” Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 12, 193–214 共1971兲.
See also P. G. de Gennes and J. Prost, The Physics of Liquid Crystals, 2nd
ed. 共Clarendon, Oxford, 1993兲.
共A7兲 3
G. Vertogen and W. H. de Jeu, Thermotropic Liquid Crystals, Fundamen-
tals 共Springer-Verlag, New York, 1988兲.
4
Noel A. Clark, Joseph H. Lunacek, and George B. Benedek, “A study of
Brownian motion using light scattering,” Am. J. Phys. 38 共5兲, 575–585
共1970兲.
5
R. T. Schumacher, “Brownian motion by light scattering revisited,” Am.
J. Phys. 54共2兲, 137–141 共1986兲.
6
W. I. Goldburg, “Dynamic light scattering,” Am. J. Phys. 67共12兲, 1152–
1160 共1999兲.
7
Thomas Moses, Brian Durall, and Gregory Frankowiak, “Magnetic bire-
fringence in a liquid crystal: An experiment for the advanced undergradu-
ate laboratory,” Am. J. Phys. 68共3兲, 248–253 共2000兲.
Moses, Reeves, and Pirondi 224
 8 15
A. J. Nicastro, “Experiment in critical phenomena at phase transitions in
liquid crystals,” Am. J. Phys. 52共10兲, 912–915 共1984兲.
9 16
Peter J. Collings and Michael Hird, Introduction to Liquid Crystals:
Chemistry and Physics 共Taylor and Francis, Bristol, PA, 1997兲.
10
We can calculate explicitly the average in Eq. 共1兲 by weighting each
orientation angle ␪ by its probability P共␪兲. In the isotropic phase, P共␪兲
= 1 / ␲, because all values of ␪ between 0 and ␲ are equally likely. Hence
we calculate the average value of S in the isotropic phase as S
= 兰␲0 d␪ sin 共␪兲 2 共3 cos2 ␪ − 1兲共1 / ␲兲 = 0. We can similarly show that S = 1
1
for a perfectly aligned nematic phase in which P共␪兲 = ␦共cos 共␪兲 − 1兲, where
␦ is the Dirac delta function.
11
L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, Statistical Physics, Part I, 3rd ed.
共Pergamon, New York, 1980兲.
12
The sample temperature never actually reaches T* because the isotropic-
nematic phase transition first occurs at TNI, about 1 ° C above T*. So
具兩S共q兲兩2典 does not diverge to infinity, but exhibits a strong temperature
dependence.
13
Small quantities of 5CB 共catalog #32, 851-0兲 are available from Sigma-
Aldrich Co. 具www.sigmaaldrich.com典.
14
Cartridge-type resistance heaters 共part no. #E1J40兲 are available from
Watlow Inc., St. Louis, MO.
225 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 75, No. 3, March 2007
Thermistors are available from Yellow Springs Instruments 共part no. YSI-
44106兲, distributed by Newark Electronics.
H. J. Coles and C. Strazielle, “The order-disorder phase transition in
liquid crystals as a function of molecular structure. I. The alkyl cyanobi-
phenyls,” Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 55, 237–250 共1979兲.
17
W. Chen, L. J. Martinez-Miranda, H. Hsiung, and Y. R. Shen, “Orienta-
tional wetting behavior of a liquid-crystal homologous series,” Phys. Rev.
Lett. 62共16兲, 1860–1863 共1989兲.
18
Introduction to Liquid Crystals, edited by E. B. Priestley, Peter J. Woj-
towicz, and Ping Sheng 共Plenum, New York, 1974兲. In the average over
angles, uniaxial symmetry in the liquid crystal is assumed, so all values
of ␾ and ␺ are equally probable.
19
Reference 3 provides a full discussion. The simplest approximation is to
neglect the anisotropy of the system, treating the internal field as that at
the center of a spherical cavity in a uniform dielectric, which leads to Eq.
共A5兲. The validity of Eq. 共A5兲 is well supported by experimental evi-
dence.
20
Bruce J. Berne and Robert Pecora, Dynamic Liquid Scattering with Ap-
plications to Chemistry, Biology, and Physics 共Krieger, Malabar, FL,
1990兲.
Moses, Reeves, and Pirondi 225