Abstract
Using a light-beating, Rayleigh-scattering technique, we observe the thermally excited biaxiality fluctuations which appear in the uniaxial disklike phase of a potassium-laurate, 1-decanol, O mixture close to the biaxial phase. The two polarized- and depolarized-mode linewidths undergo a critical slowing down, in agreement with a Landau-type prediction. From the wave-vector dependence of the damping rate, one estimates the bare transverse correlation length to be comparable with 2 micelle diameters.
- Received 18 June 1984
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.53.787
©1984 American Physical Society