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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Thickness dependent phase behavior of antiferroelectric liquid crystal films
LiDong Pan1, Shun Wang, C S Hsu
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
Abstract:
Free standing films of a liquid crystal compound with simple surface enhanced order were studied. The resultant phase diagram demonstrates that (1) the short helical pitch smectic-C(alpha)* phase disappears below a film thickness of 10 layers, and (2) the temperature window of a distorted 4 layer smectic-C(FI2)* phase increases dramatically upon decreasing film thickness. The experimental findings were attributed to the reduced dimensionality and enhanced surface effects in thin films. The results of the smectic-C(alpha)* phase are consistent with what have been reported for helically ordered magnetic thin films, with a noticeable difference due to the opposite effect of the surface on ordering in the two systems.
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