Abstract
High-resolution heat-capacity experiments on free-standing films of the liquid-crystal compound 3(10)OBC near the smectic-A-hexatic-B phase transition have been conducted. The hexatic-B phase has been found to propagate into the smectic-A phase through a series of layer transitions, each appearing to be continuous. Furthermore, the evolution of the layer-by-layer transitions is shown to be inconsistent with recent theory regarding the fluctuation-induced forces of the highly anisotropic smectic phases.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2090-2093 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Physical review letters |
Volume | 69 |
Issue number | 14 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1992 |