Unusual Thickness-Dependent Heat-Capacity Anomalies in Free-Standing Hexatic Liquid-Crystal Films

C. Y. Chao; C. R. Lo; P. J. Wu; T. C. Pan; M. Veum; C. C. Huang; V. Surendranath; J. T. Ho

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.085507

Unusual Thickness-Dependent Heat-Capacity Anomalies in Free-Standing Hexatic Liquid-Crystal Films

C. Y. Chao, C. R. Lo, P. J. Wu, T. C. Pan, M. Veum, C. C. Huang, V. Surendranath, and J. T. Ho

Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 085507 – Published 11 February 2002

Abstract

High-resolution heat-capacity and optical-reflectivity measurements have been conducted near the smectic- $A$ to hexatic- $B$ transition in thin free-standing films of the liquid-crystal compound 64COOBC. We find an unexpected dependence on film thickness of the integrated magnitude of the heat-capacity anomalies as the films undergo layer-by-layer transitions. We measure the penetration depths of the ordering from the surface and next-to-surface layers which are pertinent to the highly correlated thermal behavior.

Received 30 March 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.085507

Authors & Affiliations

C. Y. Chao^1,*, C. R. Lo¹, P. J. Wu¹, T. C. Pan¹, M. Veum², C. C. Huang³, V. Surendranath⁴, and J. T. Ho⁵

¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, National Central University, Chung-Li 32054, Taiwan, Republic of China
²Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, Stevens Point, Wisconsin 54481
³School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
⁴Department of Physics, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242
⁵Department of Physics, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14260