New hexatic liquid phase observed in lyotropic thin films.
An intermediate surface hexatic phase between the liquid and the crystalline phases has been found for the first time in a lyotropic lamellar liquid-crystal system. This phase is highly unusual in that it has long-range sixfold bond-orientational order but liquidlike nearest-neighbor positional correlations, and could represent a significant departure from our current understanding of defect-mediated melting in two dimensions.
Chao
Chih-Yu
CY
Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan, Republic of China. cychao@ntu.edu.tw
Hsu
Ming-Tsong
MT
Hsieh
Wen-Jiunn
WJ
Ho
John T
JT
Lin
Ivan J B
IJ