Anomalous Ultrasonic Absorption of Smectic Liquid Crystals

Abstract

(1) A somewhat simple and intuitive description of the 1/ω-divergence of the longitudinal viscosity of smectic liquid crystals having the structure of 1D density wave, which was originally derived by Mazenko et al., is given. (2) The ultrasonic absorption coefficient of the brain tissue of ox and the aqueous suspension of the myelin sheath purified from it show an anomalous frequency dependence. It will be demonstrated that these experimental results are successfully explained as due to the 1/ω -divergence of the longitudinal viscosity associated with the lamellar phase of lipid bilayers (a lyotropic smectic A phase) contained richly in these systems.