title: Experimental investigations of one liquid-crystal compound exhibiting the no-layer-shrinkage effect near the Sm-A-Sm- C(*) transition.
abstract: Three experimental probes have been employed to investigate the nature of the smectic- A -smectic- C ( Sm-A-Sm- C(*) ) phase transition of one liquid-crystal compound showing almost no layer-shrinkage effect through the transition. Results from both x-ray diffraction and optical studies indicate that the compound exhibits a crossover behavior of different molecular packing arrangements within the bulk Sm-A phase window. The calorimetry results show a significant critical anomaly near the Sm-A-Sm- C(*) transition, although it was found to be weakly first order.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: S T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: X F
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cady
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pindak
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Caliebe
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ema
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takekoshi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yao