Chiral-racemic phase diagram of a blue-phase liquid crystal

Abstract

We have measured the phase diagram for mixtures of chiral and racemic cholesteric S-(+)-4-(2-methylbutyl)phenyl-4-decyloxyben- zoate (CE6) in order to study the effect of changing chirality on the appearance of the cholesteric blue phases. We have also measured the latent heats at the isotropic transitions. Our phase diagram is compared with the Landau theory of Hornreich and Shtrikman and the data of Marcus and Goodby.