title: Temperature difference between bulk and surface transition in freely suspended smectic films.
abstract: We report an ellipsometric study of freely suspended films of a chiral liquid-crystal compound possessing the phase sequence smectic-C-smectic-A-isotropic with a very broad (67 K) smectic-A phase range. We observe a smectic-C-smectic-A surface transition which is situated more than 60 K above the bulk smectic-C-smectic-A transition temperature. Possible reasons for this unusually large temperature shift are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physical Chemistry, University Marburg, D-35032 Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schlauf
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bahr
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Glogarová
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaspar
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hamplová