MEASUREMENT OF THE DOMAIN GROWTH-KINETICS IN MULTIDOMAIN NEMATIC LIQUID-CRYSTAL POLYMERS BY MEANS OF THE WORM LIKE PATH MODEL FOR MULTIPLE-SCATTERING

The rate of domain growth in nematic side chain polymer samples is mea sured using the worm like path model for multiple scattering of light. The worm like path model which describes multiple scattering in terms of the optical persistence length is found to apply both to multiple scattering in liquid crystal polymer films as well as to model polysty rene dispersions. The required value of the optical persistence length can be calculated from the single scattering process so that there ar e no adjustable parameters in this model. The rate of domain growth in liquid crystal polymer samples is found to obey a scaling law where t he growth exponent Is about 0.85, contrary to the expected value of h. In addition, an unexpected effect of the layer thickness on the rate of growth is observed, even for layer thicknesses much larger than the domain size.