Elastic constants and material properties of novel shaped liquid crystals

We report the Frank elastic constants along with other material properties of the newly synthesized liquid crystals RB01115 and RB01189. These materials are being investigated due to their Y and H-shaped structures respectively and possible biaxial nature of the latter. At T* = (T / T$_{NI}$) = 0.94, we found the extraordinary refractive index of RB01189 to be 1.548 while the ordinary index was 1.469. We applied magnetic fields to induce Freedericksz transitions in order to find the elastic constants and determined their values to be: K$_{11}$ = 0.12 $\times$ 10$^{-12}$ N, K$_{22}$ = 5.6 $\times$ 10$^{-12}$ N, and K$_{33}$ = 4.6 $\times$ 10$^{-12}$ N. For the Y-shaped RB0115 at T*=0.98, we found K$_{11}$ = 2.8 $\times$ 10$^{-12}$ N, K$_{22}$ = 2.5 $\times$ 10$^{-12}$ N, and K$_{33}$ = 4.5 $\times$ 10$^{-12}$ N. These constants are similar to values found for other materials with non-rod shaped or bent-core structure.