title: Smectic tilt susceptibility: anharmonic behavior in surface-induced smectic layers above the nematic--smectic-a transition temperature.
abstract: Fréedericksz transition measurements were performed on the Merck liquid crystal SCE12R. The results were used to determine the quartic contribution to the free energy associated with molecular tilt relative to the layer normal in the surface-induced smectic layers above the nematic-smectic-A transition temperature T(NA) . Both the quadratic and quartic coefficients are consistent with the scaling relation (T- T(NA))(-3nu) , where nu is the correlation length critical exponent, and their ratio was approximately constant with T . The dielectric constants, the refractive indices, and the bend elastic constant for SCE12R also are reported.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7079, USA.
authors.forename: Zhibin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carbone
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Ghanshyam P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rosenblatt