Related Experiment Videos
Two experimental tests of the halperin-lubensky-Ma effect at the nematic-smectic- A phase transition
1Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6.
Physical Review Letters
|October 6, 2000
Abstract:
We have conducted two quantitative tests of predictions based on the Halperin-Lubensky-Ma (HLM) theory of fluctuation-induced first-order phase transitions. First, we explore the effect of an external magnetic field on the nematic-smectic- A transition in a liquid crystal. Second, we examine the dependence of the first-order discontinuity as a function of mixture concentration in pure 8CB and three 8CB-10CB mixtures. We find the first quantitative evidence for deviations from the HLM theory.