Effect of dispersed silica particles on the smectic-A-smectic-C* phase transition -: art. no. 041702

We study the influence of the dispersed aerosil particle concentration on the soft and Goldstone mode dynamics across the smectic-A-smectic-C* phase transition using dielectric spectroscopy. We use CE8 liquid crystal filled with aerosils of concentrations x = m(s)/(m(s)+m(LC))=0.025, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.15, where m(s) and m(LC) stand for masses of aerosil and liquid crystal, respectively. In dispersions with x<0.15 the characteristic Goldstone frequency temperature dependence f(G)(T) is almost bulklike in contrast to the corresponding soft mode dependence f(s)(T). For x>0 the degeneracy of the modes at the SmA-SmC* transition temperature is lifted. With increasing x the modes' intensities gradually decrease and the critical effective coefficient gamma tentatively approaches the value characterizing the three-dimensional XY universality class. For x = 0.15, a drastic change in behavior is observed. The Goldstone mode is completely suppressed and the f(s)(T) dependence begins to deviate from the Arrhenius behavior. A simple phenomenological approach is used in the explanation of results.