Abstract
High-resolution heat-capacity and optical-reflectivity measurements have been conducted near the smectic-A to hexatic-B transition in thin free-standing films of the liquid-crystal compound 64COOBC. We find an unexpected dependence on film thickness of the integrated magnitude of the heat-capacity anomalies as the films undergo layer-by-layer transitions. We measure the penetration depths of the ordering from the surface and next-to-surface layers which are pertinent to the highly correlated thermal behavior.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 385/[1995]-392/[2002] |
Journal | Molecular crystals and liquid crystals |
Volume | 412 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2004 |
Event | Proceedings of the 19th International Liquid Crystal Conference, ILCC2002 - Edinburgh, United Kingdom Duration: Jun 30 2002 → Jul 5 2002 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:One of us (C. Y. C.) would like to thank Prof. Jan Thoen for helpful discussion, and W. B. Shu and P. J. Wu for technical improvement in our optical image analysis and scanning system. The work was supported by National Science Council, Taiwan, Republic of China, under Grant Nos. NSC 90–2112-M-008–004 and NSC 91–2112-M-008–048.
Keywords
- Heat capacity
- Liquid-crystal thin films
- Optical reflectivity