Kerr effect in the isotropic melt of smectic polymer

Electric birefringence in the isotropic melt of a comb-like polyacrylate with mesogenic cyanobiphenyl side groups has been studied. A fraction with the degree of polymerization 200, which forms a smectic mesophase, has been considered. The change in the character of the temperature dependence of the Kerr constant has been revealed in the isotropic phase above the smectic–isotropic phase transition temperature. This effect is explained by the change in the character of short-range order in the isotropic–isotropic phase transition.