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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Observation of a pretransitional effect near a virtual smectic-A--smectic-C* transition
S Shibahara1, Y Takanishi, J Yamamoto
1Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology, O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan.
Abstract:
Unusual softening of the layer compression modulus B has been observed near the phase boundary where the smectic-C* phase vanishes in a naphtalene-based liquid crystal mixture. From the systematic study of x-ray and layer compression measurements, this unusual effect is attributed to the pretransitional softening near a virtual smectic-A-smectic-C* phase transition in the smectic-A phase, which no longer appears on the thermoequilibrium phase diagram. This phenomenon is similar but not equivalent to supercritical behavior.
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