Structures and phase transitions in thin free standing films of an antiferroelectric liquid crystal.
The premises of a discrete mean-field model for polar smectic liquid crystals are tested by analyzing the ellipsometric experiments on two, three, and four-layer freestanding films of MHPOBC. The measured temperature dependences of the ellipsometric parameters in a weak dc external field are compared to the predictions of a simple clock model. A very good quantitative agreement is found indicating an odd-even effect: XY structures are stable for odd and Ising-like structures for an even number of layers.
Conradi
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M
J. Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Cepic
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M
Copic
M
M
Musevic
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I
D003198:Computer Simulation; D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D008280:Magnetics; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D044367:Phase Transition; D012996:Solutions / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012996:Solutions