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Updated: Sep 27, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Liquid-crystal-solid interface structure at the antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition
D Coleman1, S Bardon, L Radzihovsky
1Condensed Matter Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
Abstract:
Total internal reflection is used to probe the molecular organization at the surface of a tilted chiral smectic liquid crystal at temperatures in the vicinity of the bulk antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition. Data are interpreted using an exact analytical solution of a real model for ferroelectric order at the surface. In the mixture T3, ferroelectric surface order is expelled with the bulk ferroelectric-antiferroelectric transition. The conditions for ferroelectric order at the surface of an antiferroelectric bulk are presented.
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