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Heating a crystalline solid increases the average energy of its atoms, molecules, or ions, and the solid gets hotter. At some point, the added energy becomes large enough to partially overcome the forces holding the molecules or ions of the solid in their fixed positions, and the solid begins the process of transitioning to the liquid state or melting. At this point, the temperature of the solid stops rising, despite the continual input of heat, and it remains constant until all of the solid is...
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High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
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Smectic-A to -C phase transition in isotropic disordered environments.

Leiming Chen1, John Toner

  • 1College of Science, The China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou Jiangsu, 221116, People's Republic of China.

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
|May 18, 2013
PubMed
Summary

Smectic phase transitions are surprisingly unaffected by layer fluctuations in disordered environments. The transition belongs to the random field XY model universality class, even with strong disorder effects.

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Area of Science:

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Materials Science

Background:

  • Smectic-A and smectic-C phases are liquid crystal phases with distinct molecular ordering.
  • Disordered environments can significantly alter phase transition behaviors.
  • Understanding phase transitions is crucial for materials science and condensed matter physics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To theoretically investigate the smectic-A to smectic-C phase transition in disordered environments.
  • To determine the impact of smectic layer fluctuations on the transition's universality class.
  • To identify the relevant theoretical model for this transition under disorder.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical study of phase transitions.
  • Analysis of smectic layer fluctuations in the presence of disorder.
  • Application of renormalization group techniques (implied).

Main Results:

  • Smectic layer fluctuations do not alter the nature of the smectic-A to -C phase transition, despite being stronger in disordered systems.
  • The transition in disordered environments belongs to the universality class of the random field XY model (RFXY).

Conclusions:

  • The universality class of the smectic-A to -C transition remains robust even in the presence of significant disorder.
  • The random field XY model accurately describes this transition in isotropic disordered environments.