title: Dynamic light scattering study of biaxial ordering in a thermotropic liquid crystal.
abstract: Dynamic light scattering from orientational order fluctuations in a liquid crystalline tetrapode reveals successive, weakly first-order isotropic to uniaxial and uniaxial to biaxial nematic phase transitions. The order parameter relaxation rates exhibit temperature dependences consistent with Landau-de Gennes mean field theory. Combined with previous evidence of a second-order uniaxial-biaxial transition in a closely related tetrapode, the present study supports the existence of a nematic-nematic tricritical point in thermotropic liquid crystals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Neupane
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carney
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Mehl
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Allender
authors.forename: Satyendra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sprunt