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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Orientational order of a ferroelectric liquid crystal with small layer contraction
Rafał Korlacki1, Vitaly P Panov, Atsuo Fukuda
1Department of Physics and Astronomy and The Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
Abstract:
We present spectroscopic and optical studies of a non-layer-shrinkage ferroelectric liquid crystal DSiKN65. The orientational order parameters S, measured with respect to the smectic layer normal using IR spectroscopy on a sample aligned homeotropically, does not exhibit any significant variation between the smectic-A∗ and smectic-C∗ phases. In contrast the birefringence of a planar homogenous sample abruptly increases at the smectic-A∗ to smectic-C∗ transition. This suggests a general increase in the orientational order, which can be described by the orientational order parameters S' defined with respect to the director. Simultaneous increase of S' and the director tilt Θ may explain the low shrinkage of smectic layers, which is consistent with recent theoretical models describing the smectic-A∗ to smectic-C∗ transition for such materials.
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