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Updated: Sep 22, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Unusual thickness-dependent heat-capacity anomalies in free-standing hexatic liquid-crystal films
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, National Central University, Chung-Li 32054, Taiwan, Republic of China. cychao@phy.ncu.edu.tw
Abstract:
High-resolution heat-capacity and optical-reflectivity measurements have been conducted near the smectic-A to hexatic-B transition in thin free-standing films of the liquid-crystal compound 64COOBC. We find an unexpected dependence on film thickness of the integrated magnitude of the heat-capacity anomalies as the films undergo layer-by-layer transitions. We measure the penetration depths of the ordering from the surface and next-to-surface layers which are pertinent to the highly correlated thermal behavior.
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