Stabilization of the SmC* phase in mixtures of ferroelectric and non-ferroelectric homologues

For a series denoted as HO n/** binary mixtures of ferroelectric, FE, (n = 10, 12) and non-ferroelectric (n = 8) homologues are studied. All homologue s exhibit the SmA and SmB phases. With HO10/**- HO8/**mixtures, the FE phas e exists only down to 90% of FE homologue. With HO12/**- HO8/** system the phase transition temperature to the FE phase is decreasing when decreasing the concentration of the FE compound, the width of the FE phase becoming gr adually smaller. Spontaneous polarization as well as the tilt angle in FE m ixtures is increasing with increasing FE component. We found a strong soft mode in all studied non-ferroelectric mixtures, which gives evidence of pro ximity of a hypothetical SmA-SmC* phase transition.