Rights statement: ©2011 American Physical Society
Final published version, 1.42 MB, PDF document
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Article number | 041704 |
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 8/04/2011 |
<mark>Journal</mark> | Physical Review E |
Issue number | 4 |
Volume | 83 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Publication Status | Published |
<mark>Original language</mark> | English |
Electroconvection (EC) phenomena have been investigated in the nematic phase of a bent-core oxadiazole material with negative dielectric anisotropy and a frequency dependent conductivity anisotropy. The formation of longitudinal roll (LR) patterns is one of the predominant features observed in the complete frequency and voltage range studied. At voltages much above the LR threshold, various complex patterns such as the "crisscrossed" pattern, bimodal varicose, and turbulence are observed. Unusually, the nonstandard EC (ns-EC) instability in this material, is observed in a regime in which we measure the dielectric and conductivity anisotropies to be negative and positive respectively. A further significant observation is that the EC displays distinct features in the high and low temperature regimes of the nematic phase, supporting an earlier report that EC patterns could distinguish between regions that have been reported as uniaxial and biaxial nematic phases.