title: Spatially resolved x-ray studies of liquid crystals with strongly developed bond-orientational order.
abstract: We present an x-ray study of freely suspended hexatic films of the liquid crystal 3(10)OBC. Our results reveal spatial inhomogeneities of the bond-orientational (BO) order in the vicinity of the hexatic-smectic phase transition and the formation of large-scale hexatic domains at lower temperatures. Deep in the hexatic phase up to 25 successive sixfold BO order parameters have been directly determined by means of angular x-ray cross-correlation analysis (XCCA). Such strongly developed hexatic order allowed us to determine higher order correction terms in the scaling relation predicted by the multicritical scaling theory over a full temperature range of the hexatic phase existence.
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.|National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Kashirskoe shosse 31, 115409 Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: I A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Zaluzhnyy
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.|European XFEL GmbH, Albert-Einstein-Ring 19, D-22761 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Kurta
authors.affiliation: Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii prospect 59, 119333 Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Sulyanova
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.|NRC Kurchatov Institute, Akademika Kurchatova pl. 1, 123182 Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: O Y
authors.initials: OY
authors.lastname: Gorobtsov
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Shabalin
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Zozulya
authors.affiliation: National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Kashirskoe shosse 31, 115409 Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Menushenkov
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sprung
authors.affiliation: Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii prospect 59, 119333 Moscow, Russia.|Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, prospect akademika Semenova 1-A, 142432 Chernogolovka, Russia.
authors.forename: B I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Ostrovskii
authors.affiliation: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.|National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Kashirskoe shosse 31, 115409 Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: I A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Vartanyants