Abstract
Freely suspended smectic- films, 2, 3, and 4 layers in thickness, of the achiral compound exhibit a thermotropic transition at which the uniform two-dimensional smectic- molecular orientation field becomes modulated by a periodic bend wave soliton. No such transition is found in single-layer films. This transition is interpreted as a chiral-symmetry-breaking transition, marking the spontaneous appearance of frustrated local bend.
- Received 10 June 1994
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.73.2332
©1994 American Physical Society