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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Anomalous heat capacity above the isotropic-chiral-smectic-C phase transition
1Department of Physics, Haldia Govt. College, P.O.-Debhog, Dist.-East Midnapore, 721657, India. pkmukherje@yahoo.co.in
Abstract:
A phenomenological model is developed to describe the isotropic-chiral-smectic-C phase transition. The anomalous part of the heat capacity of the chiral-smectic-C liquid crystals above the isotropic-chiral-smectic-C phase transition is calculated using Landau's fluctuation theory. The temperature dependence of the heat capacity above the transition point is calculated first for the Gaussian model and then taking the cubic and the quartic terms as a perturbation. The theoretical results are found to be in good agreement with experiment.
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