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Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Molecular orientation arrangements in the smectic-C* variant liquid-crystal phases
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
Abstract:
Recent experiments have identified three-layer and four-layer distorted helical structures in the smectic liquid-crystal phases Sm C*(FI1) and Sm C*(FI2), respectively. However, no theories have explained the existence of all these phases. A discrete phenomenological model of the free-energy is analyzed and found to predict the stability of distorted three-layer and four-layer structures, as well as simple helical solutions in smectic liquid crystals. A simple physical picture is provided to explain the stability of the phases exhibiting distorted helical structures.
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