Deux methodes photothermiques a l'etude d'une preparation de contact d'un melange binaire de cristaux liquides

The photopyroelectric (PPE) method is proposed as a sensitive technique to study a binary mixture of liquid crystals in a contact preparation. The photothermal signal is generated while scanning the contact preparation. The crystal-smectic A, smectic A-nematic, and nematic-isotropic interphase boundaries are detected. The displacement of these boundaries due to the variation of the temperature is monitored. The study of these displacements allows us to draw the complete temperature-concentration phase diagram of a binary mixtures. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.