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Updated: Aug 30, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Surface freezing and a two-step pathway of the isotropic-smectic phase transition in colloidal rods
1IFF/Weiche Materie, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, D-52425 Germany.
Abstract:
We study the kinetics of the isotropic-smectic phase transition in a colloidal rod/polymer mixture by visualizing individual smectic layers. First, we show that the bulk isotropic-smectic phase transition is preceded by a surface freezing transition in which a quasi-two-dimensional smectic phase wets the isotropic-nematic interface. Next, we identify a two-step kinetic pathway for the formation of a bulk smectic phase. In the first step a metastable isotropic-nematic interface is formed. This interface is wetted by the surface-induced smectic phase. In the subsequent step, smectic layers nucleate at this surface phase and grow into the isotropic bulk phase.
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