Relation between static short-range order and dynamic heterogeneities in a nanoconfined liquid crystal.
We analyze the molecular dynamics heterogeneity of the liquid crystal 4-n-octyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl nanoconfined in porous silicon. We show that the temperature dependence of the dynamic correlation length xi_(wall) , which measures the distance over which a memory of the interfacial slowing down of the molecular dynamics persists, is closely related to the growth of the short-range static order arising from quenched random fields. More generally, this result may also shed some light on the connection between static and dynamic heterogeneities in a wide class of condensed and soft matter systems.
Lefort
Ronan
R
Institut de Physique de Rennes (IPR), CNRS-UMR 6251, Université de Rennes 1, Rennes, France.
Morineau
Denis
D
Guégan
Régis
R
Guendouz
Mohammed
M
Zanotti
Jean-Marc
JM
Frick
Bernhard
B