Photopyroelectric ac calorimetric study of the nematic-smectic-A phase-transition line in binary liquid crystal mixtures with injected smectic-A phases.

Using a recently developed photopyroelectric ac calorimetric technique we investigate two binary liquid crystal mixtures with so-called injected smectic-A phases. Characteristic of these systems is the occurrence of nematic-to-smectic-A transition lines in the phase diagram of mixtures of pure compounds having only a nematic phase. The two binary systems are pentylcyanobiphenyl with either 4-n-propylcyclohexyl-carboxylate or 4-n-pentylphenyl 4(')-n-pentyloxybenzoate. Both these systems have domelike smectic-A ranges with narrow nematic ranges at the top. Near the top the N-SmA transitions are of first order and are crossing over to second order at a tricritical point on either side of the top with the increasing width of the nematic range. The obtained critical exponents are almost completely Fisher renormalized because of the strong concentration dependence of the nematic-to-smectic-A transition temperatures.