title: Critical behavior of layer compression modulus near the smectic- A-smectic- C(*)(alpha) transition
abstract: The layer compression modulus was measured near the smectic- A-smectic- C(*)(alpha) phase transition in a chiral smectic liquid crystal. The layer compression modulus B shows marked pretransitional effects above the phase transition. The critical softening of B can be fit to a simple power law. It is described by the theoretical description based on the renormalization-group method and seems to suggest a crossover behavior. These effects clearly show that the transition is not of the Landau mean-field type.
authors.affiliation: Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology, O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan.
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shibahara
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takanishi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takezoe
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka