Universal growth laws in liquid crystals far from equilibrium

Abstract.

Universal growth laws were examined experimentally for the transition from an isotropic melt to the liquid-crystalline state as well as the liquid-crystal (LC) to crystal transition for a system, which can be largely super-cooled. For large quench depths the growth exponent of the growth law L(t) ∼tⁿ is given by n=1. On decreasing the quench depth, two phase-ordering processes can be resolved for the isotropic (Iso.)–LC transition, one with a decreasing growth exponent 1<n<1/2 and a long-time process with n=1, independent of quench depth. In the very vicinity of the transition, nucleus growth is described by a single process according to L(t) ∼t^1/2. This behavior is interpreted in terms of an Iso. to blue-phase (BP) to cholesteric (N*) transition. The crystallization from the liquid-crystalline state (monotropic smectic A*) can be super-cooled substantially and follows a linear-growth process L(t)∼t.