- Rapid Communication
- Access by Xinjiang University
Behavior of a surface phase transition in freely suspended liquid-crystal films
Phys. Rev. E 52, R4612(R) – Published 1 November, 1995
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.52.R4612
Abstract
The smectic-A–smectic-C transition at the free surface of freely suspended liquid-crystal films with thicknesses between three and several hundred smectic layers has been studied by ellipsometry. The results indicate that the temperature dependence of the tilt angle near the surface transition is influenced by the film thickness even in the range up to ≊100 layers and that not only the first smectic layer at the surface is involved in the transition. In films of medium thickness (between 30 and 100 layers) a splitting of the transition into two steps is observed which probably does not correspond to the layer-by-layer behavior observed frequently for other liquid-crystal phase transitions.
References (16)
- C. Y. Young, R. Pindak, N. A. Clark and R. B. Meyer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 40, 773 (1978).
- P. Pieranski, L. Beliard, J.-Ph. Tournellec, X. Leoncini, C. Furtlehner, H. Dumoulin, E. Riou, B. Jouvin, J.-P. Fénerol, Ph. Palaric, J. Heuving, B. Cartier and I. Kraus, Physica A 194, 364 (1993).
- B. D. Swanson, H. Stragier, D. J. Tweet and L. B. Sorensen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 909 (1989).
- T. Stoebe, R. Geer, C. C. Huang, and J. W. Goodby, Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 2090 (1992).
- R. Geer, T. Stoebe and C. C. Huang, Phys. Rev. E 48, 408 (1993).
- A. J. Jin, T. Stoebe and C. C. Huang, Phys. Rev. E 49, 4791 (1994).
- S. Heinekamp, R. A. Pelcovits, E. Fontes, E. Y. Chen, R. Pindak and R. B. Meyer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 52, 1017 (1984).
- S. M. Amador and P. S. Pershan, Phys. Rev. A 41, 4326 (1990).
- Ch. Bahr, Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 8, 3051 (1994).
- Ch. Bahr and D. Fliegner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 1842 (1993).
- DOBAMBC is the 2-methylbutylester of 4-decyloxybenzy- lidene--aminocinnamaic acid.
- Ch. Bahr and D. Fliegner, Phys. Rev. A 46, 7657 (1992).
- When a tilted smectic phase like Sm-C is composed of chiral molecules, it possesses a spontaneous electric polarization |$$→ in each smectic layer; R. B. Meyer, L. Liebert, L. Strzelecki and P. Keller, J. Phys. (Paris) Lett. 36, L69 (1975). Because the direction of |$$→ is coupled to the direction of the molecular tilt, one can use an external electric field in order to fix the tilt direction.
- M. E. Fisher and P.-G. de Gennes, C. R. Acad. Sci. Ser. B 287, 207 (1978).
- A. J. Liu and M. E. Fisher, Phys. Rev. A 40, 7202 (1989).
- K. Binder, Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena, edited by C. Domb and J. L. Lebowitz (Academic, London, 1986), Vol. 8.