Abstract
We have performed a time resolved experiment to study, we believe for the first time, the dynamics of rotations of molecules about their long axes and the corresponding behavior near the smectic A to C transition of a ferroelectric liquid crystal. To do this, we used the transient optical Kerr effect (TOKE) technique together with a polarization heterodyne detection scheme. We have found that the rotational response has two components with different relaxation times, one corresponding to individual molecular rotations and the other to collective rotations. the latter suggests that molecules in the smectic phases are correlated in this particular rotational degree of freedom although no pretransitional behavior was observed.
© 1992 Optical Society of America
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