title: Unusual thickness-dependent heat-capacity anomalies in free-standing hexatic liquid-crystal films.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, National Central University, Chung-Li 32054, Taiwan, Republic of China. cychao@phy.ncu.edu.tw
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Veum
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Surendranath
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Ho