Dielectric α-relaxation connected with reorientations of the 4-cyano-3-fluorophenyl-4-butylbenzoate molecules around short axes in the isotropic and nematic phases is presented. In the nematic phase the super-Arrhenius temperature dependence of the relaxation has been found. Vitrification of the supercooled nematic phase is shown. Below glass transition temperature the secondary β-relaxation has been identified and described well by the Arrhenius temperature dependence on cooling and on heating. After softening of glass to the metastable nematic phase a spontaneous crystallization occurs as for some other low-weight molecular glass formers.
Different aspects of critical behaviour of magnetic materials are presented and discussed. The scaling ideas are shown to arise in the context of purely magnetic properties as well as in that of thermal properties as demonstrated by magnetocaloric effect or combined scaling of excess entropy and order parameter. Two non-standard approaches to scaling phenomena are described. The presented concepts are exemplified by experimental data gathered on four representatives of molecular magnets.
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