Calorimetric investigation of thin free-standing liquid-crystal films

Tim Stoebe, C. C. Huang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Heat capacity data near the smectic-A-hexatic-B transition in thin free-standing liquid-crystal films has been obtained. Films greater than two molecular layers in thickness display multiple anomalies associated with the smectic-A-hexatic-B transition. The anomalies are sharply peaked and are therefore inconsistent with recent defect mediated melting theory. Moreover, the separate surface and interior transition data can be successfully fit to a simple power law. The fitting results indicate that these films exhibit similar, continuous transitions at significantly different temperatures localized to regions only 30Å apart.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)361-371
Number of pages11
JournalMolecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals Science and Technology Section A: Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals
Volume303
DOIs
StatePublished - 1997

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Donors of the Petroleum Research Fund, administered by the American Chemical Society and by the National Science Foundation, Solid State Chemistry, Grant Nos. DMR-89-19334 and 93-00781.

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