Dielectric properties of liquid crystalline dimer mixtures exhibiting the nematic and twist-bend nematic phases.

A detailed investigation of the thermal and dielectric properties of a series of binary mixtures exhibiting the nematic (N) and twist-bend nematic (N_{TB}) liquid crystal phases is presented. The mixtures consist of an achiral, dimeric liquid crystal CB7CB, which forms the nematic and twist-bend nematic phases, and a calamitic liquid crystal 5CB, which shows the nematic phase. As the concentration of the calamitic liquid crystal is increased, the transition temperatures decrease linearly, and the width of the nematic phase increases. The enthalpies of phase transitions obtained from DSC measurements show that on increasing the concentration of 5CB in the binary mixtures, the enthalpy associated with the N-N_{TB} phase transitions reduces considerably compared to a clear first-order N-N_{TB} transition in pure CB7CB. The real and imaginary parts of the dielectric permittivity are measured as a function of frequency from 100 Hz to 2 MHz in the nematic and twist-bend nematic phases in planar and homeotropic devices. A significant decrease in the average dielectric permittivity as a function of temperature for mixtures forming the N_{TB} phase is observed. Measurements of the imaginary part of the dielectric permittivity show a relaxation peak in the measured frequency window for all of the mixtures exhibiting the N_{TB} phase. The activation energy associated with this relaxation process is calculated and is shown to remain constant irrespective of the composition of the mixtures.