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Physical Review Letters
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Measurement of coherence-length anisotropy in the isotropic phase of nematics

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Abstract

A phase-sensitive, differential, light-scattering method is used to measure the shape of correlated regions in the isotropic phase of nematics. In MBBA (p-methoxybenzylidene p-n-butylaniline) these regions are elongated along the molecular-axis direction and the critical behavior is close to that predicted by mean-field theory; de Gennes's parameter L2A is positive. In the isotropic phase of the smectic OBBA (p-octoxybenzylidene p-n-butylaniline) the correlated regions are flat and cannot be described by a constant L2. © 1975 The American Physical Society.

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Physical Review Letters

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