Tricritical Phenomena and Cascades of Temperature Phase Transitions in a Ferromagnetic Liquid Crystal Suspension

Abstract

We consider temperature-driven phase transitions occurring in a liquid crystal suspension of ferromagnetic particles within the Landau–de Gennes theory. The temperature dependences of the order parameters in the uniaxial model with a vector order parameter for the magnetic subsystem are obtained. The dimensionless expression for the free energy density of the suspension has been used for the study of the phase behavior general regularities of the system. Phase state diagrams of the suspension and temperature dependences of the order parameters of the liquid crystal and the ensemble of magnetic particles for different values of the phenomenological expansion coefficients are constructed. It is shown that the considered model admits the existence of a cascade of temperature phase transitions: isotropic phase–superparamagnetic nematic phase–ferromagnetic nematic phase. We have shown that in the mesomorphic state of the liquid crystal, the spontaneous magnetization can appear in a continuous way or by a jump with decreasing temperature, which corresponds to the tricritical behavior. The values of temperature and expansion coefficients corresponding to the tricritical and triple points are numerically found.

Keywords

• Landau–de Gennes theory
• ferromagnetic nematic
• phase transition
• triple point
• tricritical point