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Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Channel flow of smectic films
1Lyman Laboratory of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Abstract:
The hydrodynamics of smectic films at an air-water interface is discussed, with particular focus on the viscous response of the film under flow normal to the layers. The corrections to the response functions of the smectic phase, arising from the coupling between the flow and the smectic order parameter, are calculated. The results for the effective viscosity are illustrated by analyzing smectic film flow in a channel geometry. Two limiting cases of the flow, namely, motion dominated by dislocation-induced shear-softening and dislocation-free motion dominated by the permeation mode of mass transfer, are studied. The effect of drag from a finite depth liquid subphase is considered. The results are compared to those for hexatic and liquid films.
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