Determination of the thermo-optic coefficients and the thermal conductivities of a ferrofluid-doped lyotropic nematic liquid crystal using a nonlinear optical technique

Nonlinear optical measurements are performed with a ferrolyotropic calamitic nematic mesophase with different relative concentrations of the mixture compounds. The frontiers of the nematic domain are determined using optical microscopy and x-ray scattering techniques. The thermal lens model is used to obtain the thermo-optic coefficients and the thermal conductivities of the liquid crystals. The anisotropies of these nonlinear parameters are discussed with respect to the local order and microscopic structure of the nematic phase in different positions of the N(c) domain.