Rayleigh–Brillouin spectroscopy of n-tetracosane. Are there transitions in the melt?

Abstract

It has recently been suggested that a mesomorphic transition in the melt of n-tetracosane can be detected using Brillouin scattering. In the present paper we report measurements of both the longitudinal Rayleigh–Brillouin spectrum and the depolarized Rayleigh spectrum as a function of temperature from the melting point to 240 °C. The spectra are discussed in detail and it is shown conclusively that the light-scattering results are inconsistent with the existence of a mesomorphic transition above the melting point of n-tetracosane.