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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. A » Volume 40 » Issue 11
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Phys. Rev. A 40, 6759–6762 (1989)

Effect of the transverse dipole moment on the smectic-A–smectic-C (or –chiral-smectic-C) transition

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H. Y. Liu, C. C. Huang, and T. Min
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

M. D. Wand
Displaytech, Incorporated, 2200 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301

D. M. Walba
Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309

N. A. Clark
Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309

Ch. Bahr and G. Heppke
Iwan-N-Stranski-Institute, Technical University of Berlin, D-1000 Berlin 12, Germany

Received 29 September 1989; published in the issue dated December 1989

Calorimetric investigations have been carried out on five different liquid-crystal compounds near their smectic-A(Sm-A)–smectic-C (Sm-C) [or–smectic-C* (Sm-C*)] transitions. Contrary to the previous observation, our experimental results demonstrate that the Sm-A–Sm-C (or–Sm-C*) transition may not become first order with reducing the Sm-A phase temperature range alone. We have also found that the magnitude of the transverse dipole moment of the constituent molecules, but not the bulk polarization only, has a strong effect on the nature of these phase transitions.

© 1989 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.40.6759
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.40.6759
PACS:
64.70.Md, 61.30.-v, 64.60.Kw
 
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