Surface plasmon resonance study of the spreading of a liquid-crystal smectic- a droplet on a gold substrate.
We report a study of the spreading of liquid-crystal smectic- A droplets which completely wet a gold substrate. After the initial spreading of a molecular precursor layer, the droplets develop a complex terraced structure consisting of several monolayers and one bilayer spreading at different rates. During the late stage of spreading the droplet height decreases via a series of layer-by-layer shrinkages until a final state is reached which consists of a single dense monolayer.
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Institute of Physical Chemistry, University Marburg, D-35032 Marburg, Germany.
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