title: Surface energetics of freely suspended fluid molecular monolayer and multilayer smectic liquid crystal films.
abstract: A study of the surface energetics of the thinnest substrate-free liquid films, fluid molecular monolayer and multilayer smectic liquid crystal films suspended in air, is reported. In films having monolayer and multilayer domains, the monolayer areas contract, contrary to predictions from the van der Waals disjoining pressure of thin uniform slabs. This discrepancy is accounted for by modeling the environmental asymmetry of the surface layers in multilayer films, leading to the possibility that preferential end-for-end polar ordering of the rod shaped molecules can reduce the surface energy of multilayers relative to that of the monolayer, which is inherently symmetric.
authors: Department of Physics, Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
authors: Zoom Hoang
authors: ZH
authors: Nguyen
authors: Cheol Soo
authors: CS
authors: Park
authors: Jinzhong
authors: J
authors: Pang
authors: Noel A
authors: NA
authors: Clark
mesh_terms: D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D044367:Phase Transition; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature